Colin Hanks thinks Star Wars needs more females

Tom Hanks’ son, Colin Hanks, who has made a name for himself in Hollywood, shared a picture on his Istagram account, describing a story about introducing his daughter to the Star Wars universe. Apparently Hanks is a huge Star Wars fan, but thinks there aren’t enough female characters.

Honestly, he’s not wrong. Until the prequels, the only other female role-model from the Star Wars universe was Princess Leia. Fast forward to the prequels, and you’ve got Padme…but that’s about it. There are no other instantly recognizable females, and it’s a darn shame.

Now we find ourselves roughly 7 months away from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the infusion of what appear to be some very strong female roles. With Carrie Fisher reprising her role as Leia, Daisy Ridley as Rey,  Lupita Nyong’o doing motion capture as Kanata, and Gwendoline Christie as the mysteriously chrome-plated stormtrooper, Captain Phasma.

With such a cast of strong females, perhaps Abrams will be the Star Wars director to take Star Wars into the modern ages, where women can act just as well or even better in roles that men usually play. Before Christie was revealed to be Captain Phasma, many people wrongly thought that a female would not be a main character, because of the myth that movie-goers like our villains to be males with English accents…but Abrams has destroyed that myth, thankfully.

Then there’s the Star Wars Anthology film, Rogue One, who’s leading character is Oscar nominated actress Felicity Jones. So, for the nonce, it would appear that Disney and Lucasfilm are more than willing to step into modern times and start sending these main roles to some very deserving actresses. Here’s to hoping that we see this trend spread across all of Hollywood, particularly the super-hero genre, where females are notoriously under-billed.

Maybe, just maybe, Colin Hanks’ daughter will get a Felicity Jones Rogue One action figure, or maybe even a Daisy Ridley Force Awakens action figure to start her very own Star Wars collection. And, how great would that be?

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