When and what did Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy actually say?

In the last few days, the internet has been blown up by some statements from the director of the next, as yet untitled Star Wars movie. However, the sentences of Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, although questionable, have been taken out of context in many cases, giving a rather false impression of what was actually said.

What is this movie at all?

The first information about the movie came well before the official announcement. At the time, the writer was Damon Lindelof, who left the project after writing the first draft. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was already rumoured to be in the director’s chair, with Steven Knight, best known for his Peaky Blinders series, taking over the script. Even then, rumours had already suggested that the film would pick up after The Rise of Skywalker, with several characters from the sequel trilogy returning, but mainly in supporting roles, with the primary focus being a new cast of characters.

At the opening day of last year’s Star Wars Celebration, the project was finally officially announced, and while it has yet to be titled, it was revealed that it will be set in a new era of the canon called the New Jedi Order. It was also revealed that the film will take place 15 years after the ninth numbered episode, and that this new order will be led by Rey, with Daisy Ridley reprising her role. This announcement has led to the press and fans alike referring to the production as a ‘Rey film’, although no one has claimed that she will be the main character, and if the leaks are anything to go by (which so far have been 100% accurate), she won’t be.

The announcement understandably sparked outrage from many, and the oft-repeated, now almost parody of itself, fan complaint that „leave the Skywalkers behind” was once again heard. Sadly, these fans will have missed the fact that this year sees the release of The Acolyte, which picks up 100 years before The Phantom Menace. In addition, at the very same panel where the New Jedi Order movie was revealed, it was also announced that a Dawn of The Jedi era movie directed by James Mangold will be made, 25,000 years before the Skywalker Saga.

The fact that two stories are set in parallel in the past and the future creates, in my humble opinion, very interesting storytelling possibilities. Some elements of the film set in the New Jedi Order era could contain elements from the original Jedi Order’s long history, allowing two stories that are thousands of years apart, yet connected, to be told without Lucasfilm getting stuck in the tired old trilogy concept.

If all that wasn’t enough, for the first time, the Old Republic era is now on the official canon timeline, complete with the familiar, old symbol. This could also mean that the story of the Dawn of the Jedi era could eventually run into the Old Republic era that fans have been waiting for, and this could be the very thing that it is supposed to lay the foundation for.

Long story short: after years of announcements and disappointments, there now seems to be some kind of concept behind Lucasfilm’s film plans. So what seems to be the problem?

Who is Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy?

The New Jedi Order director was born and raised in Pakistan and later moved to Canada, becoming a Canadian citizen in 2004. If you look at the Wikipedia article on her, you will find the terms journalist and activist alongside filmmaker. But what is the background to this?

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy returned to her native country in 2002, where she conducted social research and wrote public articles on the plight and oppression of women in her country, such as acid attacks and honor killings. She has made several documentaries on the subject, two of which, Saving Face (2012) and A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (2016), won Academy Awards. She also directed Pakistan’s first feature-length CGI animated film, titled 3 Bahadur. Western mainstream audiences were first introduced to her work in Ms. Marvel, which she directed two episodes of, set in Pakistan.

Controversial statements

As a director who is relatively little known in the mainstream, her role was not given much importance even after the announcement of the film. The press and social media only turned towards her once she said the following statement to CNN a few days ago:

„We’re in 2024 now, and I think it’s about time a woman came forward to shape the story in a galaxy far-far way.”

Let us first focus on this statement and the problems it raises. In my opinion, what the director meant to say was that she was proud to be the first woman to direct a Star Wars film, but she said it in a very unfortunate way. From the very beginning, many women have influenced the development of the Star Wars galaxy, starting with Marcia Lucas, George’s first wife, who suggested changes to her husband when Star Wars was being made. But if we move into more modern eras, there are also a number of women in important positions, such as Bryce Dallas Howard and Deborah Chow. The most obvious is Kathleen Kennedy, who is also a very divisive person and one could write countless articles about controversies surrounding her, but the fact is that she has been running Lucasfilm as CEO for almost 12 years now, a position she was appointed to by George Lucas himself. And that’s just a few of the key figures.

The other problem with the sentence is that, apart being wrong the way it was said, it is a huge communication mistake. At the moment, it seems likely that the Obaid-Chinoy-directed movie will be released in 2026, and there is a good chance that Star Wars will return to the big screen with it. It’s already a very risky move on Lucasfilm’s part to take this particular concept to the front of the queue, which in itself has already sparked resistance from some fans. These fans will not be convinced that the film has a reason to exist by statements such as this one. It will only add to their dissatisfaction.

Shortly afterwards, another sentence was given much attention on social media, that was unfortunjately taken out of context:

„I like to make men feel uncomfortable.”

As soon as this was dug up, hundreds of articles and videos appeared, giving the impression that the director had said it in connection with her Star Wars film. But this is far from the truth.

The sentence was uttered in 2015, almost 9 years ago, at a Women of the World roundtable where Obaid-Chinoy was asked about her documentaries on the oppression of women in Pakistan. In context, the above sentence is understood to mean that he likes to make the men involved in her documentaries recognise themselves in the behaviours they portray and change their mentality. So this statement has nothing to do with Star Wars, Obaid-Chinoy never claimed that her aim with this film was to make men feel uncomfortable.

Naturally, the clickbait press immediately made headlines out of this quote, and although some of the articles contain an explanation of the context in which it was uttered, the headlines are more than enough to send the already tense atmosphere into overdrive. Unfortunately, this is a subject that is itself a subject of heated debate, and it is very easy to pick out a powerful sentence like this and put it in a way that suits a narrative. It is then somewhat futile to try to write a fact-check article such as this, since the destruction has already been done and the ‘correction’ reaches far fewer people than the headlines.

Filter bubbles

My personal opinion is that the first, banal communication error may be due to the fact that we are seeing a filter bubble burst (or at least we hope it will burst). The environment in which Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy operates has probably only given positive feedback on similar statements in the past. Now, however, this statement has been and is being made to a much more diverse audience, as Star Wars fans are also a subculture with a thousand different backgrounds, cultures, beliefs and political views. No two Star Wars fans are the same, and members of the community can often be so passionate that they can even jump down each other’s throats over more marginal issues. The director was clearly unaware of this. Personally, I very much hope that she will be more careful in the future, otherwise there is unfortunately a good chance that the film will be a failure financially, even if it would otherwise be good in terms of content. Unfortunately, Lucasfilm has a history of drawing the wrong conclusions after financial failures, see Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Of course, regardless of all this, it is up to each individual to decide whether or not they agree with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s views, as well as whether or not they will go to see the film when it is released. It is very important to stress, however, that communication ploys like the one in the second quate mentioned in the article, taken out of context, can work because most people do not follow things up in detail. We tend to jump to conclusions based on headlines and key phrases, especially if they support our own pre-conceived notions. But these may be far from covering the whole picture, and we may become part of a public outcry that is not always well founded. This can ultimately lead to filter bubbles such as the one Obaid-Chinoy found herself in.

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