Star Wars pilot George Lucas tried to hide

The author Chris Snelgrove
| Published 1 hour ago

Epic space battles have been a staple of Star Wars since the very first movie, but despite the franchise's history of strong female characters like Leia, few of the pilots who jumped into the cockpit of a starfighter 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 Kota, but you won't hear her voice. She was dubbed by a man before the final release of the film.

This final film of the first Star Wars trilogy is filled with supporting characters during the space battle over Endor, so it's hard to identify the female pilot unless you're looking for her. But Kot makes a brief appearance 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!”

British actress Poppy Hands plays the character. Her voice was later dubbed by an unknown American actor.

Tens later Return of the Jedi was released, Star Wars continued to be an empire buoyed by merchandising, and in fact it was finally identified as this female pilot. in 2010 Hasbro launched a toy line Star Wars: Shadows of the Dark Sidethus, we got numbers and names for three previously unnamed Rebel pilots from Return of the Jedi. As longtime fans know, characters in the franchise have been getting real names of late thanks to toy manufacturers, a tradition that started way back when.

There is some debate among Star Wars fans who know about this female pilot as to why she was cast by a male actor in the first place. Some think it's just an example of old-fashioned sexism, while others think that actor Poppy Hands' pronounced British accent was so potentially distracting that Lucas dubbed him with an American accent (though that still doesn't explain the need for an American man instead of a woman). He did the same with the famous X-Wing pilot Wedge Antilles, whose Scottish actor Dennis Lawson was voiced by American actor David Ankrum.

Once the Star Wars creators had a name for this female pilot, it was easier to make Sil Kot a bigger part of the franchise. She has now appeared multiple times in the Star Wars canon in books such as From a certain point of view: Empire gives counterpower and From a Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi. In terms of franchise canon, Kota is officially female, despite the male voiceover, thus giving her the belated honor of being the first Star Wars pilot on screen.

In many ways, it's impressive that she made it to the screen at all. Thanks to behind-the-scenes clips from production, we know that two other women besides Magoneroka auditioned as pilots for Return of the Jedi , but she was the only one who made it into the final film. Considering how few women had even minor roles in the original trilogy, this actor's brief appearance on screen is all the more impressive. That said, she deserves praise Han Solo once praised Luke Skywalker for destroying the Death Star: “Great shot, kid…that was one in a million!”