Women's roles make the jump to light speed in new Star Wars universe

New York

PRINCESS Leia is tough, idealistic and frequently sardonic. She is also quiet. Women in the original Star Wars trilogy spoke fewer than half as many words as their male colleagues did. Leia's limited dialogue in Star Wars went unchallenged in 1977, but 40 years later, the lack of meaty roles for women and people of colour in Hollywood is under new scrutiny.

While those in the film industry ponder how to better reflect the diversity of human experience in their scripts, at Lucasfilm, a small group of women and men may have found one answer.