The 41-year-old Pakistani, Oscar winner, has been announced by Marvel to co-direct one of their upcoming series about the first Pakistani-American superhero “Ms. Marvel”.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is a well-known documentarian who brought home the Oscars for many series/films including; 2015’s A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness, exploring the aftermath of an attempted honor killing in Pakistan, and 2012’s Saving Face, which looked at acid attacks on women in Pakistan and made her the first Pakistan-born film maker to win an Academy Award. The Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker also won Emmys for both projects and has collected a total of six in her career, also winning in 2014 for Pakistan’s Taliban Generation and in 2010 for work on PBS’ Frontline/World.
Ms.Marvel’s Directing team ASSEMBLE
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah, the duo behind this year’s Bad Boys for Life, have been tapped to work on episodes of the series. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, a two-time Oscar winner in the documentary short category, has also joined the helming roster for the series, as has Meera Menon, whose credits include episodes of The Walking Dead series, The Punisher, Titans, Dirty John, and Outlander.
A new character named Amanat’s will game is introduced as well which is created by editor and director Sana Amanat, who is a Muslim-American herself. Khan was co-created by Amanat in 2014. This character will be an inspiration for young girls.
“I think it’s absolutely insane that Kamala Khan is in one of the biggest Marvel games that we’ve done. The fact that she’s the entry point character in this game makes so much sense. People from all backgrounds can relate to her,” Amanat has earlier said.
The teenage Pakistani American superhero first debuted in a Captain Marvel comic book series in 2013 and is later given her own series in 2014. She is introduced as the first Muslim character to have her own series about her embracing her “Inhuman” shapeshifting abilities for the greater good. Perhaps the most important part of this release is that out of all of the familiar and popular characters in the series, the spotlight is handed to a Muslim woman of color.
However, even with her debut comic book series, Ms. Marvel, she has remained one of the lesser-known characters in the massive world of Marvel Comics and was not given too much attention. She became more of a notable character with the children’s cartoon series Marvel Rising: Secret Warriors in 2018, the announcement of her own Disney Plus series that is connected with the popular Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has been making Pakistan proud and making a name for it since long ago, especially when she won the Oscar for the first time. We can’t wait to see the brilliance that she will be pouring in this series along with other talented directors.