Fans have been wondering when a female director would get a chance to helm a Star Wars film. Right now Disney is starting to pick up big name directors for major projects such as Ava DuVernay (A Wrinkle In Time), Niki Caro (Mulan), Anna Boden (Captain Marvel), so the question is when will a female get a shot at a Star Wars film? We know Disney/Lucasfilm has interest in DuVernay and Patty Jenkins (Wonder Woman). Well another up and coming female director is being looked at.
According to THR Reed Morano one the directors on A Handmaids Tale has recently met with Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, and while she couldn’t say what the discussion was about, she did have nothing but positive things to say about the producer:
“Kathleen Kennedy is amazing. We’re talking about adventure movies, and I’m not even remembering that she produced Goonies. Any movie that I put my finger on that I loved when I was growing up was a movie that she produced. Anyway, it was a great meeting. Obviously, I can’t say anything about what else we were talking about…I guess [Kathleen Kennedy] was watching [The Handmaid’s Tale] with her daughter and then called people and was like, ‘Who’s this Reed person?’ She probably thought I was a guy because of my name.”
Episode IX is already off limits, but it’s been well established Disney is looking to pump out a healthy amount of Star Wars films throughout the next decade and beyond, so it’s possible Kennedy was gauging Morano’s interest in helming a future film for the franchise.
Morano has directed three episodes of The Handmaid’s Tale, as well as an episode of ShowTime’s Billions and AMC’s Halt And Catch Fire. That’s too wide of a range to speculate what Kennedy might have in mind for Morano and Star Wars, but considering Kennedy noticed her while watching The Handmaid’s Tale…could it have to do with a story like that? We will have to wait and see.
