Weekend Fun (Or Not): Let's Talk About That Rey Movie ... Again

You may wonder why I would want to talk about the upcoming (as of now) Rey movie “New Jedi Order” again, well, the reason for that is simple. For some inexplicable (or not) reason the director of the Rey movie, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, made a somewhat puzzling appearance on CNN on New Year’s Eve where she briefly talked about the Star Wars movie scheduled for release in 2026. CNN treated that almost as if it’s anything newsworthy, even though she was announced as the director back in April 2023, in fact, it is very strange and peculiar why Obaid-Chinoy made this appearance, doing PR work for a movie that still doesn’t have a finished script. So what is going on here? But what really irked quite a few Star Wars fans is what Obaid-Chinoy had to say about her directing job. Click through for the full story and a discussion!

Screenshot of two audience members watching New Jedi Order. Acquired from the future via wormhole time travel.

Ok, first let’s read what Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy said on CNN:

We’re in 2024 now, and I think it’s about time that we had a woman come forward to shape the story, in a galaxy far, far away.

At first glance the statement seems to be what you’d expect to hear from someone in Hollywood anno 2024. It’s the usual identity politics angle where your gender, heritage or ethnicity are apparently more important than other qualities, like “merit”, “experience” or “talent”.

But what is really ruffling the feathers of many is that Obaid-Chinoy not only displays an acute lack of any respect for any of the women who have helped shaped Star Wars since 1977, but it’s even worse to hear what she did NOT say, i.e. that she looks forward to making an “entertaining” movie that will “please” Star Wars fans. No, she found it sensible to instead put all the focus on her gender. It almost sounds like entitlement, that just because she’s a woman she deserves that job. As if a female Star Wars director has some innate skills that would make any movie very different from what a man would do.

Also, let’s not forget all the women that have played crucial parts in Star Wars. First there’s George Lucas’ first wife, Marcia, who was instrumental in editing especially the final battle for the Death Star in A New Hope and who therefore contributed greatly to the shape of the movie. Then there’s Carrie Fisher, who didn’t just portray Leia on screen, but she also helped George write some of the dialogue (uncredited). Then there’s Leigh Bracket who co-wrote the first draft of The Empire Strikes Back with George Lucas back in 1977 and even though she died before the movie even began filming many of the elements from her first draft (a city in the clouds, a chase through an asteroid field etc) survived the eventual rewrites. And she also got a proper writing credit for the movie. Moving forward we have of course Kathleen Kennedy herself, who has been the president of Lucasfilm since 2012 and she definitely “shaped the story” of Star Wars to a great degree. Then there are Bryce Dallas Howard and Deborah Chow, both of whom directed Mandalorian episodes and Chow even filmed all of Obi-Wan Kenobi. And Steph Green directed episodes of The Book of Boba Fett and most recently she also worked on Ahsoka. Do they not count? Are they nothing?

Sure, no woman has directed a Star Wars movie before, but still, it feels disrespectful of Obaid-Chinoy to pretend she’ll be the first woman ever to have an significant input on Star Wars.

Now to make one thing very clear, the debate is not about whether or not a woman should or could direct a Star Wars movie, there is no debate here, of course a woman should or could direct a Star Wars movie, gender should not matter at all really. Rather, the debate is very specific about Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.

The very fact she felt she needs to highlight her gender and that this is all she really talked about betrays her feminist activist background. And this is the thing: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is NOT a filmmmaker. Sure, she made documentary films, she even won two Oscars for her documentaries, but none of that makes her an actual filmmaker. As in: someone who knows how to make an actual motion picture with actors and a $150+ million SciFi action blockbuster with lots of CGI and stunts.

The thing is, Obaid-Chinoy never even went to film school, she studied economics and political science, she describes herself as an “activist” and “accidental filmmaker”. These are her own words. Why would anyone even think of her when they want a director for a Star Wars movie?

Now despite what some may think, training is actually important, there is a reason film schools exist and while you can certainly be self taught to a degree there is still a reason film schools exist, making movies is a craft, a craft you need to learn. Making big budget CGI blockbusters is nothing you can pick up on the go (Gareth Edwards could tell you about it). So Lucasfilm had Obaid-Chinoy direct two episodes of Ms Marvel and while these are just rumors, word is, her episodes were so terrible they basically had to reshoot most of it. And remember that VFX artists complained bitterly about incompetent Marvel directors who know nothing about CGI or special effects, making their life miserable in return.

But even then, two Ms Marvel episodes are hardly the qualification and training you need to tackle a major motion picture with a budget approaching $200 million or more. It has to be said: Obaid-Chinoy is just a documentary maker first. Hiring her to direct a Star Wars movie is as crazy as hiring Michael Moore after Bowling For Columbine to direct a prequel movie. No one would have done that back then, even if Moore won an Oscar. The entire thing reeks of affirmative action. What is so confusing about all this: while the idea of wanting a female Star Wars movie director is reasonable, why didn’t Lucasfilm, and here Kathleen Kennedy specifically, pick someone with actual expertise, talent and experience? Why an activist documentary maker from Pakistan who probably knows nothing about Star Wars to begin with? Why not give this movie to someone like Bryce Dallas Howard (she was given The Flight of the Navigator remake from Disney instead…)? Why even bother with training young female directors on your shows when you then hire someone who is not even a proper director or filmmaker? For example, Steph Green’s The Book of Boba Fett episode received lots of praise. Lucasfilm was apparently pleased with her as well, since they hired her back for Ahsoka. Yet for the new movie they hire someone who is not even a properly trained director. I wonder what these other women feel about it when Obaid-Chinoy makes these statements.

And sure, you can be an activist filmmaker, nothing wrong about that per se, but the question needs to be asked if Star Wars needs an activist in the director’s chair or someone who has the talent, qualifications and experience to make a movie like this and whose primary goal is to make the best movie possible that will entertain people all around the world.

The problem is that if the Rey movie failed… it could be very bad for Star Wars. But then again, it could also be a good thing. The question is if Star Wars could survive a massive box office flop. I think “maybe”. But once you lose fans or audiences it can be very difficult to win them back again. Then again, Star Wars is such a huge part of our pop culture that any movie that follows, if it’s a proper course correction, could probably fix things.

And why could a Rey movie flop be a good thing? If it’s a galactic sized disaster like “The Marvels” it would probably kill off all sequels stories for good. No one in their right mind (if there are such people at Disney, there are doubts) would ever greenlight anything sequel related again. So maybe in some ways a Rey movie flop could be a boon to all those who hate the sequels and want them gone and never mentioned again. Maybe all it needs is one massive box office megabomb to kill it all.

But the risk is high, as mentioned, there is no guarantee there would be an easy comeback after a massive flop.

Of course Obaid-Chinoy will not write the movie, a (white) man will write it, Steven Knight, writer of Peaky Blinders and co-developer of “Who Wants To Be A Millionaire” of all things. So that is that. The next question is if this time Bob Iger would have his watch dogs oversee the production, he famously blamed a lack of Disney oversight during Covid for the “The Marvels” disaster, conveniently throwing director Nia DaCosta under the bus, yet another director with almost zero experience (all she ever really did before was to direct a badly received low budget all black Candyman reboot that flopped badly). So it may be that Obaid-Chinoy would be director in name only, maybe directing some character parts of the movie, whereas action, stunts, CGI etc would be handled by other people with actual talent and experience, which in turn would make Obaid-Chionoy little more than a figurehead, a PR stunt. Which, if that were the case, would be disrespectful to women everywhere. When a woman directs a Star Wars movie it should really be her movie, and she should get the job based on merit and experience, not identity, to begin with.

On to the final point: why would Obaid-Chinoy appear on CNN on New Year’s Eve in the first place? This reeks of PR, i.e. it is very likely someone on Obaid-Chinoy’s team (i.e. management) approached CNN and offered them an interview with Obaid-Chinoy so she can promote a movie that still doesn’t have a script and needs no promotion right now.

So why now? When filming has not even begun and the movie is not scheduled for release for at least another 2 1/2 years?

Movie pundit Chris Gore has a theory, and it’s just a theory, speculation, keep that in mind: in his opinion Obaid-Chinoy’s appearance on CNN could be a sign of sheer desperation on her part. It may be that the Rey movie is in deep trouble. Last we heard is the script is “not ready yet”. Ok, that may not be too unusual. Scripts are revised several times and it’s normal to write numerous drafts. Then there was the strike. But on the other hand, it’s Lucasfilm and “the script is not ready yet” was usually the death knell for any of the failed movies and other projects. So it may be that Obaid-Chinoy took matters into her own hands and had her team contact CNN (or any other news outlet), offering an interview, to make things a lot harder for Disney, if they want to cancel the project.

And here’s the thing: how likely is it that Bob Iger and Disney now have cold feet? Disney just had the worst year at the box office in their entire 100 year history, they lost $1.3 billion and all but one movie lost money, and they even lost the crown as top box office performer to Universal. Even if you live in your own bubble you cannot ignore the catastrophic flop that was The Marvels (or Wish, or Indy 5), and the Rey movie has a few parallels: it’s about a character quite a few people do not care about, but of course Rey also has fans, just as Ms Marvel or Captain Marvel has fans, and the studio hired a person to make the movie who has no experience, no merit and probably none of the skills needed to actually make a CGI SciFi action blockbuster, all of which also applies to the director of The Marvels.

So could it be that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy asked her publicist to arrange an interview with CNN to talk about her movie… because she’s in danger of sharing the fates of Colin Trevorrow, Lord & Miller, Weiss & Benioff, Taika Waititi, Rian Johnson and especially Patty Jenkins? Patty was meant to be the first female Star Wars movie director before Obaid-Chinoy was given the Rey movie. And we all know what happened to Rogue Squadron. A script never materialized and then it was quietly cancelled. So maybe Obaid-Chinoy wanted to use CNN as a platform to create pressure, making it harder for Disney to fire her or to cancel the movie outright. That would explain the odd timing of the interview. Because how dare Disney fire yet another “first ever female Star Wars director”… again? So it may very well be that it’s a well calculated PR stunt by Obaid-Chinoy. Either with or without Kathleen Kennedy’s blessing, who seems hell bent to get the project going.

But whatever is going on: based on Obaid-Chinoy’s lack of qualifications (none that apply to big budget blockbuster movies) and her own agendas, in her own words she always has activism in her movies, either overt or covert, coupled with the fact that very few people ever asked for a sequel to the sequels in which Rey gets to do what Luke did in books decades ago, it seems almost inevitable that New Jedi Order may be as much of a massive flop as The Marvels. A movie that, as of now, has not even crossed the $200 million threshold at the global box office and just made a little more than $84 million domestic, on a budget that is at least $250 million, plus $100 million marketing at least. It’s the worst Disney flop ever. In a year that had three super massive box office bombs for Disney. Wish is another epic disaster. And The Dial of Destiny bellyflopped before.

So the big question is: would a Rey movie that sinks to the levels of The Marvels be a good or bad thing for Star Wars fans? On the positive side it could finally put an end to all sequels stories (if you want the sequels be forgotten about, if you are a fan you should pray that Rey movie is cancelled), and if Kathleen Kennedy would still be around in 2026 it should finally end her career as Lucasfilm president, I mean, what else would she have to do to get her golden parachute after not one, but two massive flops? Don’t forget that Kennedy’s Indiana Jones 5 was a major box office bomb in its own right. No one in Hollywood should survive two massive flops. In the past you often did not survive even one such disaster. The fact that Kennedy is still president of Lucasfilm after The Dial of Destiny is puzzling to begin with.

On the negative side a massive Star Wars movie flop could derail all the movie plans once again and kill off Star Wars movies for good for a long time. There certainly are some who would see this a good thing too. But I think having more Star Wars movies would be a good thing, if the movies are good. So it would be a shame if a Rey movie derailed everything.

There is one final thing to consider: with big Hollywood studios (mostly just Disney) throwing inexperienced, unqualified and undeserving female directors under the bus they could achieve the very opposite of the thing they want to promote: having more successful female directors in Hollywood. As of now people like Greta Gerwig are in the minority. She actually had years and years and years of training, both in front (as an actress) and behind the camera, call it a traditional Hollywood career. So no, she didn’t get Barbie out of the blue. Greta deserves every single bit of her success. But then Disney think they can fast track it all and have people like Nia DaCosta blunder it, after Chloe Zhao already fumbled the ball with Eternals and then they double down by hiring a documentary maker from Pakistan for Star Wars and let’s not forget how Lucasfilm dropped Patty Jenkins like a hot potato after her Wonder Woman 1984 disaster. But at least Zhao is an indie filmmaker, and even DaCosta at least directed one proper Hollywood movie of note before The Marvels, and Jenkins will always have the first well received Wonder Woman movie. Obaid-Chinoy has none of that. If so many of these female directors hired by Disney fail… it could very well be extremely detrimental to women in Hollywood. These things take time, patience, training and experience. But it seems Disney wants a female insta-director overnight.

So where does this leave things? In my opinion we can only hope Bob Iger, or whoever will be CEO after the next shareholder meeting, will come to his senses and end this project before it will cost Disney a fortune and lose them hundreds of millions of dollars. Quite frankly, with someone like Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy at the helm I cannot see how a Rey movie could ever be a success, heck, even if George Lucas himself returned and directed a Rey movie I cannot see it becoming a success, the sequels are a lost cause, in my opinion.

But what do you think? What do you make of it all? And before I close… I wonder what Hasbro are thinking. Are they dreading having to support a Rey movie with toys, when they can be pretty confident about the movie not doing well and the toys doing even worse? While many of Hasbro’s woes are self-inflicted, because Chris Cocks is an idiot, I still pity them for having Disney as their major partner. What once seemed like a good idea more and more turns into a burden. Then again, no one is forcing Hasbro to have all these Disney licenses, they may as well quit.

Do you have any hope for a Rey movie? What do you think are the odds we ever get to see it? Could Obaid-Chinoy’s CNN PR stunt be a sign of sheer desperation? Or is it just the usual Hollywood PR machine? Running a bit early in this case…

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