Colin Hanks calls for more female Star Wars characters

Actor Colin Hanks is calling for more female characters in the Star Wars franchise after his young daughter noticed the lack of girls in the sci-fi series.

Tom Hanks' son introduced his four-year-old daughter Olivia to the blockbusters earlier this month (May15), to coincide with the unofficial 4 May celebrations, a play on the saga's iconic phrase, "May the force be with you".

Hanks took to Instagram last week (ends10May15) to share photos of Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia and her subsequent action figures, sharing the story of how his perceptive daughter noticed there weren't many girls in the franchise.

He wrote, "So, the other night, on May the 4th to be exact, I sat down with my 4 year old daughter and showed her Star Wars: A New Hope. It was her first time watching it. She loved it. Her favorite character was Princess Leia. She kept asking 'Where is Princess Leia? Where is Princes Leia?'

"A few nights later, I show her Empire Strikes Back (or as she called it The Emperor stripes back) and within four minutes of watching the movie she says, 'It's so tiring watching these movies. It's always boys, boys, boys and there's only one girl.' I could not of been more proud of her.

"So today I take her to (retail store) Toys 'R' Us to buy her a light saber and a Princess Leia toy. After being told that the light sabers were 'in the boys section', she picks out the light saber of her choosing and asks about the Princess Leia toy.

"One problem: they only had the 'slave Leia'. As you can see, sad depressing, 'slave Leia'. So wrong. The only good to come from this is that, once again, my daughter makes me look at the world in a whole new light."

Hanks ended the post with the hashtag, "#HelpusJJyoureouronlyhope", referring to JJ Abrams, who directed the upcoming Star Wars: The Force Awakens, due out in December (15).

Hanks' plea for more female characters and toys comes days after The Avengers star Mark Ruffalo took to Twitter.com to express a similar dismay, noting there weren't enough products feature Scarlett Johansson's superhero alter ego.

He wrote, "Marvel, we need more Black Widow merchandise for my daughters and nieces. Pretty please."