Women take the lead in the new ‘Star Wars’ movie

The male-centric universe of the original "Star Wars" gives way to a woman warrior and a female version of Yoda in the much-ballyhooed "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" that will inevitably take the planet - this one - by storm as it opens this week.

The timing is probably right for a new female superhero, now that Jennifer Lawrence has wound up her stint as the archer Katniss Everdeen in "The Hunger Games" movies.

Enter little known British actress Daisy Ridley as the loner Rey, ekeing out a subsistence living as a scavenger of spaceship parts on the planet Jakku . . .