George Lucas Confirms What We All Knew--Star Wars Is Boy Focused
Someone needs to tell Lucasfilm.
Ron Howard was recently in an interview discussing “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and how and why he was brought in to “fix” it. During the interview, he told them about the advice “Star Wars” creator George Lucas had for him, and current year Lucasfilm might not be happy to hear it.
Let’s back up a bit first.
Howard was explaining that he was brought in to “fix” “Solo: A Star Wars Story” after Kathleen Kennedy decided that the original directors, Chris Miller and Phil Lord, were not going in the direction she wanted (creative differences).
Before he accepted the challenge, he talked to “Star Wars” creator and former “Willow” boss, George Lucas, to get his thoughts. Lucas was not working on “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” but “Star Wars” was his creation, so who knows it better?
What did Lucas tell him?
According to Howard, Lucas gave him this advice,
“Just don’t forget — it’s for 12-year-old boys.”
George Lucas confirmed that while the “Star Wars” films are for everyone, the intended demographic was for 12-year-old boys.
Certainly, this shouldn’t be a shock to anyone, except it is. Usually followed by someone screaming about how it’s for “everyone” or that this is “misogynistic.”
Yes, it is for everyone, but the “Star Wars” franchise has always skewed male. It’s been proven that no matter how much Kathleen Kennedy, Disney, or the mainstream media want the franchise to move towards a female audience, it hasn’t and it likely won’t.
In a Parrot Analytics scatter plot from June 2024, we can see that the “Star Wars” audience stays firmly planted in the male demographic, while “The Mandalorian” moved closer to a female audience, it still stayed solidly on the male side.
“Star Wars” skews male. There is nothing wrong with that.
This is why making “Obi-Wan Kenobi” about little Leia (that made no sense) instead of little Luke didn’t work.
Maybe this would explain why making Luke turn against everything he was didn’t go over well with male-dominated audiences.
Again, no one is saying only men like it. We all know that isn’t true, but it is true the franchise fans are mostly male.
The sooner Lucasfilm understands the actual audience, the sooner they can get back to profitability.
This is my take as a life-long (and yes female) “Star Wars” fan.