While Rogue One was being promoted (and protested) as a female-led sci-fi blockbuster, its trailers remained noticeably male-dominated. Now, we can confirm it features the worst gender imbalance since the original Star Wars trilogy.
We counted seven women among the dozens of speaking roles in Rogue One, massively outnumbered by armies of men. There’s the main character Jyn Erso, obviously. Then there are two minor supporting characters (Rebel leader Mon Mothma, and Jyn’s dead mother), and four more with a couple of lines of dialogue each.
By comparison, there are eight or nine male characters just in the main cast, filling the entire Rogue One team and all of the villain roles. On top of that, there’s at least another 20 male rebels, politicians, and Empire officers with speaking roles in the supporting cast, plus significant cameos like Darth Vader and Bail Organa. Even the background extras are men, exceeding the typical 17 percent ratio for women in Hollywood crowd scenes.
