Star Wars will soon return to cinemas with reports of a new project currently in production from Damon Lindelof and Ms. Marvel director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
The Academy Award-winning filmmaker and activist is tapped to helm the secret project alongside Lindelof, with a report suggesting the director is being brought on before a script is written so she can have final creative say on the deeply secretive project. Deadline reports Obaid-Chinoy has now been cemented as the project’s director, marking a major milestone in its development.
Obaid-Chinoy directed several episodes of Ms. Marvel, with the director returning to fiction following her her two Oscars for documentaries Saving Face and A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness. She became the first Pakistani director to win an Academy Award and her upward trajectory will see her continue with Star Wars and Disney.
Should the project go ahead as planned, Obaid-Chinoy will become the first woman to direct a Star Wars film, and the first person of color to direct within the franchise marking a major milestone. Next to nothing is known of what to expect from this project, but with Obaid-Chinoy’s previous works focusing on marginalized communities, women’s suffrage, and the ramifications of apartheid and colonization, it feels as though it could be a far heavier project than, say, Solo.
The 43 year-old is also an accomplished journalist, which adds further weight to her contributions to the script for the project and the second Oscar-winning director to helm a film in the franchise after Ron Howard.
The secretive project is likely several years away, with it possibly the first cinematically released Star Wars film since The Rise of Skywalker.