Kathleen Kennedy Addresses Why Women in “Star Wars” Face Online Attacks from the 'Male-Dominated' Fan Base

"They sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal," said the Lucasfilm president

Kathleen Kennedy is addressing the continual struggle faced by the women of the Star Wars franchise.

As Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm, recently spoke with The New York Times regarding the franchise's latest Disney+ series The Acolyte, the longtime Hollywood producer said she believes "storytelling does need to be representative of all people."

“That’s an easy decision for me," Kennedy, 70, said. “Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation — it’s terrifying,”

The Acolyte stars Amandla Stenberg, Carrie-Ann Moss, Lee Jung-jae, Jodie Turner-Smith and Manny Jacinto, among others, in an effort to center women and people of color in Star Wars' storylines, as The Times reported. The show is created by writer-director Leslye Headland, a lifelong fan of the franchise and the first woman to create a television series for a galaxy far, far away.

“I think Leslye has struggled a little bit with it. I think a lot of the women who step into Star Wars struggle with this a bit more," Kennedy told the outlet. "Because of the fan base being so male-dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.”

Related: The Acolyte's Amandla Stenberg Shares the 1 Thing That Surprised Her While Working on the Star Wars Series (Exclusive)

Daisy Ridley, who led the franchise's three sequel movies released between 2015 and 2019 as the character Rey, stressed an importance for actresses in the franchise to "tune out" negative comments during a January 2023 interview.

Kelly Marie Tran, who played a supporting character in 2017's The Last Jedi and 2019's The Rise of Skywalker, wrote a 2018 op-ed for The Times in which she decried racist criticism she received from fans stemming from her Star Wars role.

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"Amandla Stenberg can handle herself," Ridley, 32, said in 2023 of Stenberg, 25, and The Acolyte, according to Variety. "She's been working for a long time. I sat next to someone at the Wakanda Forever premiere, an executive, and they said [The Acolyte] is amazing."

Related: George Lucas Defends Star Wars from Criticisms That 'It's All White Men': 'Most of the People Are Aliens!'

Headland came to create The Acolyte for Lucasfilm after directing movies like 2015's Sleeping with Other People and co-creating the popular Netflix series Russian Doll with Natasha Lyonne and Amy Poehler, among other projects.

“I stand by my empathy for Star Wars fans,” she told The Times in a text message, regarding her new show. “But I want to be clear. Anyone who engages in bigotry, racism or hate speech … I don’t consider a fan.”

The Acolyte comes more than one year after Lucasfilm announced Ridley will reprise her role as Rey for a new Star Wars movie intended to take place after The Rise of Skywalker. The Acolyte, which premieres on Disney+ June 4, takes place well before the events of 1999's The Phantom Menace.

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