Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a two-time Oscar winner for her short documentaries A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness as well as Saving Face, will direct one of the upcoming Star Wars films after helming two episodes of the DisneyPlus series Ms. Marvel.
Lucasfilm Ltd. announces 3 new live-action movies in the franchise
Jenna Benchetrit · CBC News
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Canadian Star Wars fans, rejoice — Lucasfilm Ltd. on Friday announced three new live-action films in the franchise, including an instalment that will be directed by one of our own.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a two-time Oscar winner for her short documentaries A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness and Saving Face, will helm one of the upcoming projects after directing two episodes of the DisneyPlus series Ms. Marvel.
Obaid-Chinoy, a filmmaker and journalist who was born in Pakistan, became a Canadian citizen after moving to Toronto in 2004.
LISTEN | Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy tells Q she enjoys telling stories about ‘ordinary people who are extraordinary’:
12:51Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy on directing Ms. Marvel
Journalist and filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is known for tackling tough topics in her documentaries. But now the Academy Award-winning director has her camera set on something different. She spoke with Tom Power about making her narrative directorial debut for the Disney+ series Ms. Marvel.
Obaid-Chinoy’s movie will take place after the events of 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker, with Daisy Ridley returning as Rey, the protagonist of the sequel trilogy that began with 2015’s The Force Awakens. The new movie will focus on Rey “as she builds a new Jedi Order,” according to Friday’s announcement.
U.S. entertainment site Deadline had reported in October that Obaid-Chinoy was set to direct a Star Wars project.
The news was confirmed Friday, at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 in London by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy as well as on the Star Wars website.
The two other directors included in Kennedy’s announcement are James Mangold, who helmed 2017’s Logan, and Dave Filoni, an executive producer at Lucasfilm who is writer-director of The Mandalorian.
Daisy Ridley returns to the stage and surprises fans at #StarWarsCelebration along with director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy with exciting news about their upcoming Star Wars film. pic.twitter.com/lgafQmwyCs
Mangold’s film will mark “a return to the dawn of the Jedi,” and Filoni’s will be about the New Republic. It “will close out the interconnected stories told in The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, and other Disney+ series,” the announcement said.
“We’re thrilled to be working with some of the best and most passionate filmmakers on projects that will span the past, the present and the future,” Kennedy said.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jenna Benchetrit is a web and radio journalist for CBC News. She works primarily with the entertainment team and occasionally covers business and general assignment stories. A Montrealer based in Toronto, Jenna holds a master’s degree in journalism from Toronto Metropolitan University. You can reach her at jenna.benchetrit@cbc.ca.
With files from The Associated Press
