Woman and POC to direct new 'Star Wars' movie, says 'it's about time': 'We're in 2024 now'
A woman journalist and filmmaker—and a person of color at that—said it’s about time someone like her will direct the upcoming Star Wars movie.
“I’m very thrilled about the project because I feel what we’re about to create is something very special,” Pakistani-Canadian Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy told CNN International in an interview.
“We’re in 2024 now, and it’s about time that we had a woman come forward to shape a story in a galaxy far, far away,” she added.
White men directed previous Star Wars movies: the original creator George Lucas (A New Hope, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith), Irvin Kershner (The Empire Strikes Back), Richard Marquand (Return of the Jedi), J.J. Abrams (The Force Awakens, The Rise of Skywalker), and Rian Johnson (The Last Jedi).
There were female Star Wars directors, notably Deborah Chow, but only in television projects.
Details about Obaid-Chinoy’s upcoming Star Wars movie are still under wraps.
But it would mark the return of English actress Daisy Ridley, who last appeared in the 2019 movie The Rise of Skywalker.
Obaid-Chinoy’s projects include documentaries Saving Face, Song of Lahore, A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, and local movie franchise 3 Bahadur.
She broke into the mainstream with the television miniseries Ms. Marvel.
Obaid-Chinoy has two Academy Awards, seven Emmy Awards, and a Knight International Journalism Award.
In 2012, TIME Magazine named her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.