Oscar-winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is leaping from the Marvel universe to the Star Wars galaxy to direct a new film set 15 years after the end of the last movie.
Sharmeen’s would be one of the three new Star Wars movies that the studio executives announced on Friday were in the making.
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She will direct British actor Daisy Ridley, in a story written by Steven Knight, as she returns to the role of Rey, the heroine of the last trilogy, which wound up in 2019 to mixed reviews.
The new film will follow Rey’s efforts to revive the Jedi order.
Obaid-Chinoy, who has two Oscars for documentaries denouncing violence against women, said she was “drawn to the hero’s journey” in the Star Wars universe.
“I spent the better part of my lifetime meeting real heroes who are overcoming oppressive regimes and battling impossible odds and I think that’s the heart of Star Wars,” she said.
Obaid-Chinoy directed last year’s Ms. Marvel television series featuring a Muslim superhero.
The filmmaker won two Academy Awards for documentary short, in 2011 for Saving Face and in 2015 for A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness.
Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, the studio bought by Disney in 2012, said at a Star Wars Celebration in London on Friday that each of the three films would cover different periods in the Star Wars narrative. And each will have a different director.
