Photo credit: Rob Latour/Variety/Rex/Shutterstock
The “Star Wars” universe is adding some much needed diversity to its staff with filmmaker Victoria Mahoney being tapped by J.J. Abrams to serve as a second-unit director for the upcoming “Star Wars: Episode IX” film. This will make Mahoney the first African-American woman to hold a directorial seat in the franchise’s history.
Fellow filmmaker Ava DuVernay announced the news earlier this month on Twitter via a picture of Mahoney and Abrams with the caption, “Happy to share this historic news. A Black woman directing stories in a galaxy far, far away.”
Happy to share this historic news. A black woman directing stories in a galaxy far, far away. First unit director #JJAbrams. Second unit director @VictoriaMahoney. #StarWarsE9 #StarWars pic.twitter.com/s689jv9I4u
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) April 17, 2018
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Mahoney comes to the project as an already established filmmaker whose debut feature film, “Yelling at the Sky” premiered in 2011 at the Berlin Film Festival. Since then, she’s directed episodes for major television shows like “Queen Sugar,” Grey’s Anatomy, and “Gypsy.” According to IndieWire, she recently just finished directing a pilot for the CBS show “Red Line,” which was executive produced by DuVernay and Greg Berlanti.
Catt’s outta the bag. Thank you @ava for putting my name in the #StarWars #LucasFilm hat. Thank you #JJAbrams for inviting me on your ferocious ride. *This one’s for the outliers, dreaming big–in small corners of the Earth.
#MaytheForceBeWithYou https://t.co/G6ckWzCIwt— Vic Mahoney (@VictoriaMahoney) April 17, 2018
As a household franchise, “Star Wars” has come under fire in the past for its lack of diversity behind-the-scenes and last year, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kenned, told Variety that finding a female director was its priority. Thankfully, Mahoney has been tapped to fill that void.
“Star Wars: Episode IX” is currently in pre-production and set to be released in December 2019.