Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who has been announced to direct the upcoming Rey film featuring Daisy Ridley, recently shared more details about the project and heavily implied it will inject more feminism into Star Wars.
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy onstage during the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)
Speaking with Variety about her upcoming Diane von Furstenberg documentary, Obaid-Chinoy detailed what attracted her to the film, “The story that interests me most is in Rey’s journey as a female Jedi. That’s how I can best bring my experiences to it.”
She went on detail who she hopes to attract to this movie, “The greatest thing about ‘Star Wars’ is that everyone has a personal connection to it. Everyone is passionate about it. And throughout the fandom, people have clear ideas about who should direct or what the stories should be about. I’m just drowning out those voices until I’m done.”
“As a storyteller, I’m focused on drawing new moviegoers into the cinema, and bringing a sense of nostalgia that will appeal to older fans of the series,” she added.
(L-R): Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Iman Vellani as Ms. Marvel / Kamala Khan on the set of Marvel Studios’ MS. MARVEL, exclusively on Disney+. Photo by Chuck Zlotnick. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.
She also discussed the film in an interview with Sirius XM saying, “Sometimes you walk in the footsteps of people and giants who’ve created worlds. And in the case of Star Wars, George Lucas’s world and the filmmakers that have walked in his footsteps, have set this world that they want young viewers to sort of walk into and have an understanding of the world.
She then detailed what is at the heart of the Star Wars world, “And at the heart of it, for me, is Rey Skywalker is Daisy Ridley and her story and taking her on an adventure to a Jedi Academy and sort of creating a world that is a natural dovetail to the story that we’ve seen her go through the last three episodes. And working with Lucasfilm and Kathleen Kennedy and the team over there in breathing life to characters that everyone loves and has fallen in love with and finding new characters that the next generation of moviegoers will fall in love with.
From there, Obaid-Chinoy detailed who she’s been collaborating with to bring the film to life, “I’ve had conversations with JJ Abrams. I’ve had conversations with George Lucas and then, of course, Dave Filoni who’s a big uh part of the Star Wars uh Universe now, we speak very often. And Kathy Kennedy and Carrie Beck and Simon Emanuel.”
“I mean I think the team is is really taking time to make sure that we do justice to telling the story of Daisy. I think that that she stands for something. We’ve seen this wonderful journey she went on in episode 7, 8, and 9 and now it’s like on to the next adventure and how do we create a world and the adventure that we take her on,” she concluded.
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: Daisy Ridley and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy attend the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)
It’s no surprise that the film will inject more feminism into Star Wars. Kathleen Kennedy made it clear that was her goal all the way back in 2015 during an appearance at Fortune Magazine’s The Most Powerful Women Summit.
She said, “I think the interesting path we’ve had is the conversation that took place around consumer products. Because there were a lot of companies that were in place who frankly didn’t initially feel that Star Wars was for girls.”
She continued, “And when you have a company situation where between Lucasfilm and Disney, we were all looking at this situation saying, ‘No, with Star Wars we have to change this. We have to make sure that we create products that are in a sense appealing to both boys and girls.’ What’s wrong with that?”
Kennedy would go on to detail, “The fact that the company was bought by The Walt Disney Company has been amazing because they very much support the fact that we are trying to grow in the work force a number of women in executive positions and in all positions inside the company. And with the movies that we are making and with the protagonists that we are putting in the stories. So I get a huge amount of support with that.”
She added, “But we have 50% of our executive team are women. And six out of eight of the people in my story group are women. And I’m sure there’s a lot of people that would be surprised that we’re making Star Wars movies and the majority of the people involved in the development of those stories are women. And I think it’s making a huge difference in the stories that we’re trying to tell.”
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: (L-R) Daisy Ridley, Kathleen Kennedy and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy attend the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)
Kennedy recently admitted this plan to bring in more women to the fanbase has failed.
She told The New York Times, “Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation — it’s terrifying. I think Leslye has struggled a little bit with it. I think a lot of the women who step into ‘Star Wars’ struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.”
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – MAY 23: Kathleen Kennedy, President, Lucasfilm attends the launch event for Lucasfilm’s new Star Wars series The Acolyte at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on May 23, 2024. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
Aside from Kennedy’s aim to inject feminism into the franchise, Obaid-Chinoy has made her own previous comments indicating she would be doing this with the film. She told CNN in January, “I am very thrilled about the project because I think what we are about to create is something very special. And we are in 2024 now and I think it’s about time we had a woman come forward to shape the story in a galaxy far, far away.”
She also told Vice News in May 2023, “My name is Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and I’m directing the next Star Wars film. I’m excited about bringing Daisy Ridley back into the Star Wars galaxy, and in telling her story, I am excited to be immersed in the Jedi Academy, and I think there is so much excitement around the new Jedi order.”
She continued, “I’ve always kicked open doors that were previously closed, and I think my feeling is that there is a critical mass of women who have begun to move forward in places that were previously closed to them.”
@vicenews Pakistan-born Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will be the first woman and person of colour to direct one of three new Star Wars films. She’s Muslim, brown, an Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker and this is her first major Hollywood feature. #StarWars #womenoftiktok #Pakistan #southasian #director #movie #film #msmarvel #daisyridley #jedi ♬ original sound – VICE News
Obaid-Chinoy also made it clear in 2015 one of her goals with the documentaries that she makes is to “make men uncomfortable.”
She stated during an appearance at the Women in the World summit, “Oh, absolutely. I like to make men uncomfortable. I enjoy making men uncomfortable.”
She then added, “It is important to be able to look into the eyes of a man and say, ‘I am here.’ And recognize that. And recognize that I am working to bring something that makes you uncomfortable because you need to change your attitude and it’s only when you’re uncomfortable, when you’re shifty, when you have to have difficult conversations that you will perhaps look at yourself in the mirror and not like the reflection, and then say, ‘Maybe there is something wrong with the way I think,’ or ‘Maybe there is something wrong with the way I am addressing this issue.”
What do you make of Obaid-Chinoy’s recent comments regarding her Star Wars film?
NEXT: Rumor: Lucasfilm’s Daisy Ridley Rey Star Wars Film Will Be Titled ‘Star Wars X – A New Beginning’
It’s like some delusional parallel world from a non-existent episode of The Twilight Zone, where creators compete to see whose film or TV series will fail the most miserably and cause the most rage and disappointment among the audience. I can even see it getting across the message about subjectivity of taste at the end, lmao.
Rey Palapatine. Heart of Star wars. How did we get here.
kathleen kennedy. Pure, plain and simple as that. disney buys star wars and marvel to gain the male segment and immediately turn it over to these scum and immediately turn it into GIRLZ. How is kennedy still employed, and not a joke and case study of having the world in your hand and failing so miserably that she should be remembered as the anti-everything. Who else could take gold and make into lead, and somehow still be celebrated and employed. That t wat should be embarrassed to ever show its face in public again. How much money has she personally lost the brand. She will go down as the BIGGEST FAILURE as an executive EVER. I mean, EVER.
Yet she’s still employed. Mind boggling.
Lucas picked her because, quite simply, he’s a complete and utter fool.
We all knew it, but isn’t it concrete now after the recent James O’Keefe expose, that the only reason this thing is employed is due to her name checking multiple boxes? Simple as that.
I’d be extremely surprised if the Rey movie gets made.