Which Star Wars Movie Has the Most Screen Time for Female Characters?

The latest addition to the expanding Star Wars cinematic universe was released over Memorial Day Weekend, taking us back to a galaxy far, far away on a swashbuckling adventure with a young Han Solo. And while it's exciting to see the backstory of one of the saga's most beloved characters, it's even more intriguing to meet new characters we haven't seen before. Since LucasFilm was bought by Disney back in 2012 and the new era of Star Wars began, female fans of the series, both new and old, were treated to more female characters in the latest films. While Thandie Newton's Val didn't get nearly enough screen time in Solo, Emilia Clark's Qi'ra was one of the film's most prominent and complex characters. Seeing characters like Qi'ra and Rey is important to women who deeply love Star Wars and their roles show that this iconic franchise is taking important steps forward with the new additions to the canon. 

Just how far has Star Wars come over the years? Film lecturer and writer Becca Harrison set out to answer that question by editing down every Star Wars movie - with the exception of Solo - to include only the lines of dialogue spoken by female characters. Harrison then used this data to rank the movies based on female inclusion. So which Star Wars movie has the most screen time for its female characters? The answer is, unsurprisingly, Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi. 

Johnson's The Last Jedi faced an astounding amount of backlash from fans after its release while simultaneously being hailed by critics as the most progressive Star Wars film to date.  No matter how you feel about Luke Skywalker's last stand, the data is incontrovertible; The Last Jedi did something no other Star Wars film before it got even close to accomplishing. The movie gave its female characters ***almost*** as much screen time as its male characters. Not to mention, Harrison documented whether each film passed the Bechdel test and The Last Jedi passed it more than once. As awesome as Qi'ra was in Solo, the film didn't pass the test once. 

It's not surprising that the three Star Wars films with the most screen time for female characters were released under Disney's acquisition of Lucasfilm. The Last Jedi, The Force Awakens, and Rogue One were created under the watchful eye of Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and the stark difference in screen time for female characters between George Lucas's tenure at the helm of the Star Wars franchise and Kennedy's in undeniable. The closest Lucas helmed film is Return of the Jedi with just 23% of screen time for female characters. Even that, though, is much higher than the franchise's first installment, A New Hope, having an embarrassing 15% of screen time dedicated to its female characters. 

Star Wars and Lucasfilm are obviously making necessary strides towards equal representation for women in their films, however, there's clearly still work to be done. No Star Wars movie has ever been directed by a woman and it doesn't seem like that's going to happen anytime soon. For all Kennedy's done to usher Star Wars into a more modern and ~woke~ era, she's made some disappointing comments about why more women haven't been hired behind the scenes at Lucasfilm. Kennedy told Variety “We want to make sure that when we bring a female director in to do ‘Star Wars,’ they’re set up for success. They’re gigantic films, and you can’t come into them with essentially no experience.” I can only hope somebody faxed her a list of all the qualified female directors working in Hollywood today after she gave this interview. 

There are a number of Star Wars films currently in production, so here's hoping some of those films will reach equal screen time for all their characters. And maybe they'll get a woman behind the camera soon, too.