The female Star Wars pilot George Lucas tried to hide
From Chris Snellgrove
| Published
From the first film, epic space battles have been a staple of Star Wars, but despite the series’ strong history of female heroines like Leia, few of the pilots who jumped into a starfighter cockpit in the original trilogy were women. Most fans believe that it wasn’t until the prequel trilogy that we got great female pilots, but that’s not true.
There is a hidden female pilot in the original Star Wars trilogy Return of the Jedi. Her name is Sila Kott, but you can’t hear her voice. She was dubbed by a man before the film’s final release.
This final film in the first Star Wars trilogy is full of supporting characters during the space battle over Endor, making it difficult to identify the pilot unless you look for her. But Kott briefly appears as one of the A-wing pilots, complete with a green flight suit and a slightly different helmet. She’s the one who says, “Got it!”
The character is played by British actress Poppy Hands. Her voice was later dubbed by an unknown American actor.
Decades later Return of the Jedi Star Wars continued to be a merchandising-driven empire, and so this female pilot was eventually identified. In 2010 Hasbro launched the toy line Star Wars: Shadows of the Dark Sidewhich gave us numbers and names for three previously unnamed Rebel pilots from Return of the Jedi. As long-time fans know, characters in this series are given proper names late thanks to toy manufacturers, a tradition that goes back to the beginning.
There is debate among Star Wars fans who know about this female pilot as to why it was even voiced by a male actor. Some believe this is just an example of old-fashioned sexism, while others believe actress Poppy Hands’ distinct British accent may have been so distracting that Lucas drowned her out with an American accent (although this still doesn’t explain the need for an American one would). more male than female). He did the same with the famous X-Wing pilot Wedge Antilles, whose Scottish actor Denis Lawson was dubbed by American actor David Ankrum.
Once the Star Wars creators had a name for this pilot, it was easier to make Sila Kott a larger part of the series. She has now made several appearances in the Star Wars canon in books such as: From a certain perspective: The Empire strikes back And From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi. Speaking of franchise canon, Kott is officially female despite the male dub, giving her the belated honor of being Star Wars’ first female pilot.
In many ways, it’s impressive that she even made it to the screen. Thanks to behind-the-scenes production clips, we know that two other women besides Poppy Hands auditioned to be pilots for Return of the Jedi, but she was the only one who made it into the final film. Considering how few women played even supporting roles in the original trilogy, this actress’ brief appearance on screen is much more impressive. That means she deserves the praise Han Solo once effusive to Luke Skywalker for destroying the Death Star: “Great shot, boy…that was one in a million!”
