Feminist Director Promoting New Star Wars Movie That Probably Won’t Get Made
Never underestimate the power of the human ego. It has the incredible ability to distort reality, blinding one to their mistakes, and short circuiting rational thinking in ways that astound observers. It is ego that still drives the decisions of LucasFilm. There simply is no other plausible explanation for its decision to announce yet another film that probably won’t get made, and name a director who seems more interested in their own agenda and implies Star Wars needs to be fixed.
Opinions vary on the meaning and merits of feminism today. That isn’t the issue. The issue is whether a Star Wars film is a good platform for espousing feminist ideals. Is it the right platform to be promoting any social commentary or agenda at all? Is repositioning a popular sci-fi franchise that has entertained generations to engage in the culture wars that have come to exhaust the audience and drive down revenue a wise decision?
The answer is obviously no. All you need to do is examine the last few LucasFilm movies. LucasFilm has bad some bad years. The IP was immensely valuable ten years ago when it was first acquired. It’s value has since eroded with under-performing films and TV shows. There is near constant criticism of the audience coming from executive producers, writers, actors, and directors of LucasFilm properties, doing enormous damage to their brands.
The last Star Wars film focused on the female protagonist Rey Palpatine, a character that scores amazingly high on the Mary Sue scale. The sequel trilogy killed off most of the legacy characters, depicting the men as broken failures, and notably not uniting the “big three” in a single scene. Reviews were weak and although Rise of Skywalker (Palpatine!) made a little over $1 billion at the box office, it under-performed its two predecessors and exited the public consciousness quickly. We won’t even get into poor merchandise sales.
The most recent failed LucasFilm project was Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which also depicted its male protagonist as a broken old man, a total reversal of fortune from the end of his last film. He is supplanted by a brunette with a British accent, not unlike Daisy Ridley’s Rey Palpatine. The film didn’t just under-perform. It may be the biggest financial failure of a film of all time.
A rational leader of LucasFilm would change direction, adapting to the marketplace. It is a business after all. It isn’t a political action committee. LucasFilm, and specifically Kathleen Kennedy, have chosen not to. Why? Ego.
That is the only explanation for naming Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy as the director of the next Star Wars film focusing on Mary Sue Jedi Knight, Rey Palpatine. Obaid-Chinoy makes documentaries and short films, largely focused on women’s rights. She has never directed a big budget action film in her career.
When she started during interviews about the film, she declared it was about time a woman took the helm of Star Wars. Never mind that the head of LucasFilm has been a woman for about a decade. A woman who also wanted to feminize the franchise and declared “the force is female.” Never mind that there is a large number of women in the Star Wars writing group, and numerous episodes of Star Wars TV shows have been directed by women, including Bryce Dallas Howard.
Is it about time a woman was hired to direct a Star Wars film? I suppose she would technically be the first in that regard but the Star Wars franchise has not been a boy’s club for a very long time. Let’s be real, no glass ceilings are being broken here. More importantly, fans don’t really care who directs the movie, as long as it is good.
A better question: why is the director of the next Star Wars film talking about everything except the film? Why is it about the business and who is in charge? What about the story? What about the legacy?
Apparently, the only difference that matters is that the director will be a woman: her. That is by far the most important thing about the next film.
Ego.
This approach to marketing movies has been tried many times and has an abysmal track record. Yet, LucasFilm and director Obaid-Chinoy seem prepared to triple and quadruple down.
Star Wars is a science fiction film franchise. It is popular because of fantastic storytelling, timeless themes, lovable characters, and exciting action. It is fun. It is entertainment. It is not a social commentary platform. It’s audience wants to be entertained, not lectured to or bombarded with the political opinions of those who own the franchise.
Don’t worry. Over half of Star Wars films announced are never made. Given the sad state of things over at Disney and for Kennedy, I doubt we’ll every see Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey movie.