Russian Doll Showrunner Leslye Headland Tapped For New Star Wars Disney+ Series

Very cool Does this mean we'll get some female-focused Star Wars series in the future? (Of course, just because Headland wrote for one such show doesn't mean her next project will also be this, but still).

In any case, I'm all in for yet another SW series

 

Oh, great. In this day and age, if the focus is on something being "female", than we are more likely to get another Ghostbusters (2016), T: Dark Fate or Captain Marvel. Yay.

 

Yes how dare Star Wars branch out and try different things.

 

We'll see when more info shows up.

 

I ain't interested in a female focused show but I welcome a new option of star wars content! May not be for me but if successful and other fans enjoy it then that's awesome

 

I hope it happens

 

whats wrong with captain marvel?

 

Her utterly repulsive smugness.

 

yeah but asides from that whats wrong with the movie itself. If they just had gotten a better lead, would that have fixed the movie for you?

 

This is why I'm worried about this show, it feels agenda-driven rather than an honest attempt to make good Star Wars.

As a woman, I like female characters who aren't forced (pun intended) into the story just for the sake of having a female lead or any of this "strong woman" nonsense.

Don't get me wrong, of course i want prominent female characters, but to me a "strong" female character is one who has merit and pedigree based on their actions and importance to the story just the same as any strong/well-written male character. If people want equality, then surely gender shouldn't be important? I mean they never announced movies, shows or games as "male-led" like its important, so please don't do it when a lead character is female! Its shouldn't be a big deal, so stop making it into one.

Take Ahsoka Tano, for example; a characters who was hated by many when first introduced, but people have grown to love her because she's a great character - not because she's a symbol for "girl power". When she was introduced it wasn't because they wanted a female character, she was just the right choice and a natural inclusion to the story.

This is from the heart, and I will not discuss this matter any further.

Edit: To prove mine, and many other fans' point - it would seem; The Mando S2 finale did it perfectly, as has the entire series. The "girls getting it done" part was natural and it never felt like "oh cool, a bunch of females kickin butt!" - because they're good characters who were there for a reason formed by the plot, not some forced narrative based around their identity, I've seen a lot of people praising it for the same reason and it seems to be universally loved.

Others have explained it much better than I ever could, but I hope some of you here can appreciate the sentiment.

Thanks.

 

Oh, definitely. The character needs better writing, to make her likeble and relatable and an actress, capable (and willing) to pull that off.

 

I very much disagree. (And look at me mansplaining! ).

There is absolutely something to be said for including female and minority characters into white-male-dude driven pop culture franchises (and other arenas) for the explicit sake of including women and minority characters. It's a matter of representation, and any non-white-non-male character in Star Wars is a win in and of itself. Of course, we should demand the same level of excellence in the writing (and execution) of female characters as we do with male ones, but in addition to that a female (and minority) representation constitutes an added quality in and of itself.

A cool, rounded, and well-written male character is a great thing.
A cool, rounded, and well-written female (or minority) character is a great thing, AND it's a female (or minority) character with the added eye towards equal representation!

So far, I haven't seen any indication that Headland's work and characters will be forced, and I for one am quite excited to see what this show will be. We shouldn't expect a female-driven show with a woman showrunner to be bad (or forced or whatever) just because it's a female-driven show with a woman showrunner. No, we should have the same expectations and demands of Headland's show and characters as we have to other upcoming (and existing) shows, with the added excitement for seeing something which we haven't really experienced in Star Wars yet... a female-driven show from a woman showrunner. Headland should be held to the same standards as everyone else, neither higher nor lower standards just because she's a woman.

Thus far, I think Disney era Star Wars have done pretty ok in this department. More/better could and probably should be done, but things are moving forward. The Mandalorian, I find, does a particular good job for Star Wars with female and minority characters; not necessarily in quantity, but definitely quality-wise. Talking only about women characters here, we've seen a wide variety for female characters represented broadly in various walks of Star Wars-life; some have been coded female (Omera [mother], Frog Lady [mother], & Xi'an [vixen I guess]), some have been coded male (Cara Dune [soldier jock], Fennec [contract killer] & Blacksmith [macho artisan]), and some have not been gender-coded at all or just vaguely so (Peli Mott, Morgan Elsbeth, un-named Imp Comms Officer, etc.).

And even those who HAVE been gender coded female have also had other legs to stand on than just their gender. (Omera [leader], Frog Lady [hyper-capable], Xi'an [badass and an equal]). The Mandalorian has set a decent bar for inclusion, I think, and there's no reason to expect Headland's show to do any worse, just because Headland's a woman and her show a female-centric one, IMHO.

 

@Angelman

You know, I was writing a long post, detailing my view on representation, with points, explanations and all that. But a simpler way to put it just hit me:

Attention is a limited resource. And the more attention you spend on political agendas and representation quotas, the less you can spend on setting, plot, storyline and character development.

 

And as a writer, I completely disagree. There's no contrast in writing setting, plot, storylines, and characters and having an eye on making representation a part of your decision making as a creator. You write fiction AND make fair representation, it is not one or the other.

 

I'm not singling out Headland - or any other filmmaker because of their gender.

 

Good!

 

Yay!

 

Agreed. I think this discussion deserves way more nuance.

With the "attention" example, I'm not sure what people expect. Are the writers just sitting around saying "hey, remember how our characters are female?" "Yep, they sure are female," and doing nothing else?

Of course not, that's silly. It's not detracting from their attention in any significant way. Instead, perhaps we'll see their identities inform the story in some way. Or perhaps it's simply representation, and that's not a bad thing either (I don't see people claiming that The Bad Batch is "political" because its leads are all men).

I'm not saying representation can't be botched (personally, I think the Avengers movies have steered a little too into the Corporate Wokeness category too much at times), but I think we here can probably all agree on this: representation is a good thing, it's just sometimes hijacked by corporations for Good Will currency.

But even then... at least it's representation, I guess.

 

A good example is the scene in Avengers Endgame, where the female avengers unite. They have no connection to each other, no reason to be there, and it doesn't feel natural, at least not for me. A better scene is in The Boys S2, where Kimiko, Maeve, and Starlight unite to beat the blast out of Nazi Stormfront. They all have different reasons to be there, they are sometimes at odds, but they do all hate Stormfront, and that feels more natural than the scene in Endgame.