Pakistan-born Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will be the first woman and person of color to direct an installment of the blockbuster film franchise.
Pakistan-born Oscar-winning director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy becomes the first woman and person of color to direct a Star Wars film.
Studio executives announced on Friday that three new Star Wars films are in the works, with the first slated to release in 2025.
Obaid-Chinoy will direct a film set 15 years after the end of the last film, starring British actor Daisy Ridley who returns as Rey, the heroine of the final trilogy, which ended in 2019 to mixed reviews .
The new movie follows Rey’s efforts to revive the Jedi Order.
Just revealed on #StarWarsCelebrationKathleen Kennedy welcomes James Mangold, Dave Filoni & Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy to the stage as future directors of three new upcoming Star Wars movies. pic.twitter.com/v2os1tdHJH
— Star Wars (@starwars) April 7, 2023
Obaid-Chinoy, who has won two Oscars for documentaries exposing violence against women, said she was “drawn into the hero’s journey” in the Star Wars universe.
“I’ve spent most of my life meeting real-life heroes who overcome oppressive regimes and battle against impossible odds, and I think that’s the core of Star Wars,” she said.
Obaid-Chinoy directed the television series Ms Marvel with a Muslim superhero last year.
Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, the studio bought by Disney in 2012, said each of the three films would cover different periods in the Star Wars story. And each will have a different director.
James Mangold, himself a two-time Oscar nominee, will be directing another movie after directing the latest in the Indiana Jones series, due out later this year.
His film will look at the origins of the Jedi Order thousands of years before the original storyline.
And the third film is directed by Dave Filoni, an old hand in the Stars Wars universe, who has produced several television series, including the hugely successful The Mandalorian, now in its third season.
Fans at the convention also got a first look at American actress Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka, a female Jedi warrior who made her first animated series appearance.
The character was such a hit with the Star Wars fanbase that she graduated from a television series in August.