25 Star Wars and Marvel characters responsible for making Disney+ a success
By Mark Lynch
3. Princess Leia
Actor: Carrie Fisher
“Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?” -Princess Leia
There was a time when women were only cast to be attractive and ogled over. As time went on, that changed. Just because you looked good doesn’t mean you couldn’t be rage against the machine. Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia was one of the women who helped lead the charge against typecasting women.
Princess Leia was a rebel from the beginning. During Star Wars: A New Hope, she risked her life to get information to destroy the Death Star. When her planet (Alderaan) was obliterated, her mission didn’t stop. She continued to lead the rebellion. Sure, she was in a skimpy outfit in Return of the Jedi. But she made Jabba the Hutt pay for making her wear that.
When it’s time to look back at the pioneers of science fiction, Star Wars should always be a go-to. The special effects from the late 1970s and early 1980s don’t change a character’s importance, it helps. It proves that a story with well-developed characters will make the audience ignore the visuals. Princess Leia’s importance to the genre showed this perfectly.
Disney Plus allows people to go back and see why Carrie Fisher was crucial to the women’s revolution in film. This writer cringes to think about where movies would be without her influence.