By Chris Snellgrove | Published
Since the very first film, epic space battles have been a staple of Star Wars, but despite the franchise’s strong history of female heroes like Leia, few of the pilots jumping into the cockpit of a starfighter in the original trilogy were women. Most fans think that it was only with the Prequel Trilogy that we got great female leads, but that’s not accurate.
The original Star Wars trilogy has a female pilot hidden in Return of the Jedi. Her name is Sila Kott, but you won’t hear her voice. She was voiced by a man before the film’s final release.
This final film in the first Star Wars trilogy is filled with supporting characters during the space battle over Endor, making it difficult to identify the female pilot unless you’re looking for her. But Kott appears briefly as one of the A-Wing pilots, 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. His voice was later dubbed by an unknown American actor.
Decades later Return of the Jedi was released, Star Wars continued to be a merchandising-fueled empire, and that’s actually how this female pilot was ultimately identified. In 2010, Hasbro launched the toy line Star Wars: Shadows of the Dark Sidethat’s how we got the numbers and names of three previously anonymous Rebel pilots from Return of the Jedi. As longtime fans know, characters in this franchise belatedly get real names thanks to toy makers, a tradition that dates back to the very beginning.
Among Star Wars fans who are familiar with this female pilot, there is some debate about why she was voiced by a male actor in the first place. Some think this is simply an example of old-fashioned sexism, while others think the Poppy Hands actor’s heavy British accent was so potentially distracting that Lucas dubbed her with a American accent (although this still doesn’t explain the need for an American accent). male rather than female). He did the same thing with the famous X-Wing pilot Wedge Antilles, in which Scottish actor Denis Lawson was dubbed by American actor David Ankrum.
Once the Star Wars creators had a name for this female pilot, it was easier to make Sila Kott a bigger part of the franchise. She has now made several appearances in the Star Wars canon in books such as From a Certain Point of View: 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 voice acting, giving her the belated honor of being the first on-screen female Star Wars pilot.
In many ways, it’s impressive that it made it to the screen at all. Thanks to behind-the-scenes production clips, we know that two other women besides Poppy Hands auditioned to be pilots in Return of the Jedi, but she was the only one who made it to the final film. Given how few women played even minor roles in the original trilogy, this actor’s brief on-screen appearance is far more impressive. That means she deserves the praise Han Solo lavished on Luke Skywalker for destroying the Death Star: “Great shot, kid…that was one in a million!”
