It would appear that he’s the reason the movie was led by a woman.
However, his contribution did not stop there, as he tells Yahoo Movies that he named the lead character as well.
Knoll had three growing daughters when working on the Star Wars prequels and wanted to make a character that young girls like them could look up to.
Visual effects artist John Knoll is the man credited with first pitching the idea of setting film around the retrieval of the Death Star plans to Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy.