Disney: ‘Strong, Empowered’ Females In Star Wars Is ‘Purposeful’

During the panel, Filippatos brought up a photo of the Star Wars character “Rey” on the screen from The Force awakens as a sign of their new focus on girls.

“As you may have noticed, hopefully you did, the lead character in the Force Awakens was the lightsaber wielding Rae, a very strong empowered female heroine who really took the movie and the world by storm,” she said. “Let me just say, you know, that was purposeful, that was purposeful on Disney’s part and purposeful from the filmmaker’s perspective to make that lead character a strong empowered female.”

Filippatos also highlighted the upcoming Star Wars film “Rogue One” pointing out that Disney also put “very strong female as the lead.”

SOURCE

I saw the issue mentioned above come up in a recent thread, so I wanted to discuss it one more time to set the record straight. It was once a hotly contested issue on this forum.

"The Force Awakens" Really Is Feminist Propaganda

Is 'Star Wars' now a vehicle for constant feminist propaganda?

I want to comment on why Disney chose to have female leads in the last two Star Wars films. I believe it was strictly a business decision. I think it was strictly marketing. Consider what the next several Star Wars films are going to be...

Upcoming Star Wars Movies: List Of Titles And Release Dates

Star Wars: Episode VIII - Luke Skywalker will almost certainly be the lead character.

Young Han Solo Movie

Star Wars: Episode IX - Luke Skywalker will almost certainly be the lead character.

A Boba Fett Movie

Following those films I've heard that we may see stand-alone films about Yoda and Darth Vader.

If you think like a corporation, I believe all of this is easy to understand. Disney knows that female fans are essential to make the Star Wars franchise successful. Disney knew that they were going to have a bunch of films on the way that would have male leads.

It's clear to me that the decision to have "strong empowered female heroines" as leads in the last two films was based entirely on money. George Lucas was trying to make art. Right now, Disney is approaching Star Wars strictly as a business venture. I have a problem with that. They are capable of making great art. I understand that they can't do it all the time because earning money is ultimately the reason for the company's existence. I just couldn't stand to see Star Wars go from something relatively pure to being strictly a business venture.

I believe we'll see some Star Wars films in the future where the goal will be strictly to make great art. Disney's been doing it for too long for it not to rub off on Star Wars at some point.

A hot female lead in a movie = money.

originally posted by: Profusion

During the panel, Filippatos brought up a photo of the Star Wars character “Rey” on the screen from The Force awakens as a sign of their new focus on girls.

“As you may have noticed, hopefully you did, the lead character in the Force Awakens was the lightsaber wielding Rae, a very strong empowered female heroine who really took the movie and the world by storm,” she said. “Let me just say, you know, that was purposeful, that was purposeful on Disney’s part and purposeful from the filmmaker’s perspective to make that lead character a strong empowered female.”

Filippatos also highlighted the upcoming Star Wars film “Rogue One” pointing out that Disney also put “very strong female as the lead.”

SOURCE

I saw the issue mentioned above come up in a recent thread, so I wanted to discuss it one more time to set the record straight. It was once a hotly contested issue on this forum.

"The Force Awakens" Really Is Feminist Propaganda

Is 'Star Wars' now a vehicle for constant feminist propaganda?

I want to comment on why Disney chose to have female leads in the last two Star Wars films. I believe it was strictly a business decision. I think it was strictly marketing. Consider what the next several Star Wars films are going to be...

Upcoming Star Wars Movies: List Of Titles And Release Dates

Star Wars: Episode VIII - Luke Skywalker will almost certainly be the lead character.

Young Han Solo Movie

Star Wars: Episode IX - Luke Skywalker will almost certainly be the lead character.

A Boba Fett Movie

Following those films I've heard that we may see stand-alone films about Yoda and Darth Vader.

If you think like a corporation, I believe all of this is easy to understand. Disney knows that female fans are essential to make the Star Wars franchise successful. Disney knew that they were going to have a bunch of films on the way that would have male leads.

It's clear to me that the decision to have "strong empowered female heroines" in the last two films was based entirely on money. George Lucas was trying to make art. Right now, Disney is approaching Star Wars strictly as a business venture. I have a problem with that. They are capable of making great art. I understand that they can't do it all the time because earning money is ultimately the reason for the company's existence. I just couldn't stand to see Star Wars go from something relatively pure to being strictly a business venture.

I believe we'll see some Star Wars films in the future where the goal will be strictly to make great art. Disney's been doing it for too long for it not to rub off on Star Wars at some point.

Its just as well Disney or any of the others don't rely on me to make money......

I haven't seen ANY of these fantasies/cartoons

I Hate Christmas TV because that's all that gets churned out.

The original Star Wars had a strong female also.
I think people read way too much into all this so what If it had a diverse cast? I enjoyed it and after Alex Jones said Rogue one was propaganda but after him seeing it he loved it.
Sometimes a movie is just a movie.

a reply to: Profusion

I understand the apparent subtle feminism push surrounding the movie, having read about this a few months back but in this instance, imo, her articulation about making the character a strong empowering female was for marketing purposes to increase product sales towards female consumers.....

She explained that it was part of a bigger plan for more Star Wars movies and feeding the massive consumer product pipeline, pointing out that there were “tens of millions” of female Star Wars fans.

“Star Wars has always been one of those franchises that absolutely crossed gender – it covered all demographics,” Filippatos said. “But the product line, historically, has been very very boy focused and was very much geared towards boys despite the fact that these were characters that resonated very strongly with all parts of the population.”

She said that Disney focused on making the product line more reflective of the interest for women as well as men.

Filippatos defended Disney referring to the controversy over the lack of Rey toys when Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released, insisting that it was the result of Rey products selling “phenomenally well.”

Aggrieved Star Wars fans were upset by the lack of Rey toys, complaining about the problem with the hashtag #wheresrey.

“The good news is she sold phenomenally well. The bad news is that she sold phenomenally well,” she said, pointing out that Rey products were “very difficult to find” because of their popularity.

Still killed off my real Father....pfft.

Cant a movie just be fun?

Does it matter what gender the lead is?

Least it was not some Zshe zhe PC main beast.

Every Disney cartoon is a princess being rescued by a man/prince.

And the new ghostbusters should show that just sticking a female in lead roles doesn't equal a money maker.

a reply to: Bluntone22

Now that was a feminist pile of crap.
Made all the men idiots and the women as sexist as they come. To reboot a well loved movie wasn't going to end well.
One of the first jokes was a front bum fart joke I turned it off at that point It took me around 5 sittings to get through it all.

a reply to: testingtesting

I never even bothered to try and watch ghostbusters.
I knew what was going to happen.

a reply to: Profusion

I want to comment on why Disney chose to have female leads in the last two Star Wars films

Does she use the force to bring luke a sammich?

a reply to: Profusion

I watched the first 20 minutes of Rogue One, then got up and walked out of the theatre. Not because of the feminist thingy, but just because they have dumbed the movie down so much and filled it with "clever" little puns every five minutes, coming from "adorable little robots" (for the kids). Sorry, but that just pissed me off. I was never a huge Star Wars fan to begin with....I mean, don't get me wrong, the originals were before their time...., but its not really STAR WARS anymore. Its more like Mickey Mouse wiped his butt and smeared it all over the projection screen.

Worst Villain Evah.

#DorkVader

I'm still just PO'd that Disney completely ruined the SWEU by making movies that have nothing to do with the existing universe that true fans have divested a good bit of time, money, and personal experiences into. Not to mention that Rogue 1 is anything but diverse . . . in fact it is the opposite. ALL the main characters were human in a Universe filled with thousands of species. So the movie is speciest at best and xenophobic at worst. And for the record, there are several stories from the existing SW Universe that would have worked wonderfully for the continued movie series and even very similar to what they did. Case in point the protagonist and antagonist should have been the twin children of Han and Leia, Jaina and Jacen respectfully. Jaina (female) was the "Sword of the Jedi", and Jacen was a new equivalent of Palpatine "Darth Caedus". Yeah, all Disney really did was to alienate all the true SW fans while making a story that was not near as good.

a reply to: JDeLattre89

Psst... The Bothans stole the plans for the SECOND Death Star...

originally posted by: JDeLattre89
ALL the main characters were human on a mission that was completed by Bothans.

Actually no.

It was bothans that stole the plans to the secound death star.

The plans to the first deathstar in the old bookswhere stolen by rebel agents karl kartaan and Jan Ores.Plus another set of plans where stolen in a massive battle over a jungle planet called torpawa . (Actually the director took alot of influences from the legend back stories)

As for throwing the rest of the exapanded universe out? I agree with you. I am still pissed they threw the Thrawn books out.

a reply to: crazyewok

Thrawn is back in rebels.

K, thanks . . . maybe I do need to watch the movie then I thought that was when it was based. I am still ticked about the other movie "VII". And I am not sure about watching the other new ones.

originally posted by: interupt42
a reply to: Profusion

I want to comment on why Disney chose to have female leads in the last two Star Wars films

Does she use the force to bring luke a sammich?

If you're implying that I have a problem with female leads in general, that's not the case. I like both the Resident Evil film series and the Tomb Raider film series for example. I actually enjoy those films more because there are female leads. I think it's enjoyable to watch strong women like Alice and Laura Croft.

The difference between those examples and the last two Star Wars films is this...

In the last two Star Wars films, the female leads were not written into the stories for artistic reasons but for financial reasons. In other words, it was not the artistic vision of the writers and film makers that caused the female leads to be put in the films, it was concern for the bottom line.

In the cases of the Resident Evil film series and the Tomb Raider film series, the female leads are there for artistic reasons. Those films are genuine art, and I like them as such.

The last two Star Wars films are not genuine art, and that's one reason they repulse me.

People complain too much. Good movie.