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I was rewatching the original Star Wars trilogy recently and realized: though my love for Wedge Antilles is that of a true fan, I can't recall seeing any female pilots onscreen, even in the backgrounds of scenes.
Are there any female pilots in the films? Do we hear about more of them in the Expanded Universe?
In the films:
There were scenes with four female pilots filmed, but three were cut from the final release of Return of the Jedi. The fourth (and the first photo below) made it into the film, but was erroneously overdubbed with a male voice.
No official reason has been given as to just why they were cut. But, there has been some speculation.
I do not recall any specific mention of gender of most of the pilots in any of the official novelizations or scripts aside from those of the more famous pilots (Wedge, Biggs, Dack, etc)
In the books:
Jaina Solo and Anj Dahl were both members of the Rogue Squadron. Jaina was even the leader of the squadron for a time.
There are very few, only one that I remember, in the original films, as noted in previous posts.
In the "new extended universe", or Disney's new canon, there are several people, however.
In the Clone Wars and Rebels series, there are some. At the moment, I'm thinking about Hera Syndulla, who is also referenced in Rogue One. Sabine Wren and her bounty hunter friend Ketsu Onyo and several others.
In the Aftermath books that pretty much begin a relatively short period after the second death star was destroyed, there are a few as well. Not least Norra Wexley, mother of Temmin "Snap" Wexley, who is also said to have been so close to being fried by the Death Star 2 explosion that she also suffers from what seems to be PTSD. She's a kickass pilot, though. And she almost gets to kill the then Grand Admiral and de facto leader of the largest splinter of the surviving Empire, Rae Sloane, above the planet Akiva. Grand Admiral Sloane (once a pilot for the Empire, herself), on her hand, also has a trusted pilot in Morna Kee.
I think there might be others, but at the moment, these are those I remember by heart.
