Star Wars: The Force Awakens gets new droid female - People across the world are excited for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and there are many reasons for that but one thing that has managed to strike a chord with fans of that far, far away galaxy is BB-8, that adorable new droid.

Besides the obvious differences between BB-8 and other droids there is one other distinctive feature: BB-8 may be female.

It is notable that robots and droids are inherently genderless, that's never stopped us from using the pronoun "he" when it comes to talking about the likes of R2-D2, C-3PO, and others. A source told The Mail that BB-8 is in fact intended to be a female character, and claims:

"There's never been a strong female robot in any Star Wars film, J.J. (Abrams) was determined to make BB-8 cute and strong - and female," remarked the source.

If the BB-8 turns out to be a female, it will be interesting to see the impact the gender will have on the role of BB-8 in the film. The source added that it was decided to make BB-8 female in order to attract the young girls.

The idea that BB-8 has been made female in order to appeal to girls also fits with the larger direction the Star Wars universe is moving. It seems the franchise is making a concerted effort to address gender inequality within the saga, making one of the new leads a woman and adding strong female characters all over the place.