“Guardians of the Galaxy” director James Gunn is promising stronger story lines for women in the upcoming sequel because he is tired of female characters just being “the girl.”
“I am sick of stories where there are a bunch of fully realized male characters and one female character, whose primary characteristic is simply being ‘the girl’ or the personality-less object of some man’s affections,” Gunn wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
“I’m not sick of this because I’m politically correct — those of you who know me know I am far from that — but because it’s boring, and it’s b.s. Likewise, I don’t think only making female characters ‘strong’ is a fix either – you see her all the time these days, the perfect female warrior, who is a reaction to the stories of the past, but who is equally as boring and one-dimensional.”
Gunn added that strong male characters like Han Solo or Marty McFly are never “one-dimensional” but always “reflect the fullness of the world around us” — which is not the case with female characters, he said.
The post was shared in honor of International Day of the Girl, with Gunn adding, “Women all over the world have been pushed to the sidelines in the interests of men, and their personhood is often forgotten or delegitimized.”
“I can’t wait for you all to see ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,’ with Gamora, Nebula, and Mantis in action, where we not only pass the Bechdel test, but run over it and back up over it again and again in an eighteen-wheeler truck, and where their stories and the men’s stories don’t come at the expense of each other, but are interwoven in a way to strengthen and optimize all of them,” he wrote, speaking about characters played by Zoe Saldana, Karen Gillan and Pom Klementieff, respectively.
The original movie passed the Bechdel Test, which analyzes whether a movie had at least two women in it who talk to themselves about something other than a man.
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2” will star Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel as well. The film is set to hit theaters on May 5.
See Gunn’s entire post below.