As the world grows more and more excited about Star Wars: The Force Awakens (opening Friday, December 18), early screenings and premieres have film critics and lucky fans leaking details to the waiting public. After last night’s premiere in Los Angeles, L.A. Times film writer Rebecca Keegan tweeted that the film had all the right parts to please loyal fans, but with a new development: “Among its many wonderful qualities,” Keegan said, “Star Wars: The Force Awakens passes the Bechdel test.”
The Bechdel test, though not a perfect measure of gender balance in art, demands that a movie have at least two female characters talk to each other about something other than a man, and that both of these women be named. Considering that in the original trilogy, non–Princess Leia characters spoke for barely two full minutes total, this seems like a tiny win.
