Marvel Studios has added two female directors to helm Ms. Marvel at Disney+, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (3 Bahadur, Song of Lahore) and Meer Menon (The Punisher, Titans) join previously announced Adil El Arbi (Black, Gangsta) and Bilall Fallah (Image) for the superhero series.
Obaid-Chinoy is a celebrated Oscar and Emmy-winning documentarian, becoming the first Pakistani-born filmmaker to win an Academy Award for 2012’s Saving Face, via The Hollywood Reporter. The film explored the vicious acid attacks on women in her native Pakistan. She followed this win with 2015’s A Girl In the River: The Price for Forgiveness, which chronicled consequences of a failed honor killing. The six-time Emmy winner is also known for her work with PBS’ Frontline/World and for 2014’s Pakistan’s Taliban Generation.
Menon’s credits include work on series such as You, For All Mankind, The Walking Dead, and Outlander. The Hollywood Reporter details her best known work as the 2013 indie Farah Goes Bang, which follows a virgin Muslim woman seeking her first suitor while stumping for John Kerry’s presidential campaign. She also directed Equity in 2016.
El Arbi and Fallah helmed 2020’s highest grossing film, Bad Boys for Life, reuniting Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the sequel garnered $425.6M worldwide, securing a fifth film in the franchise. The duo is linked to direct another buddy cop sequel in Beverly Hills Cop 4 at Netflix. They are also set to direct the coming-of-age story, Rebel.
The four directors join head writer Bish K. Ali to bring Kamala Khan, Marvel’s first Muslim hero to lead their own comic title, to life on screen, via The Hollywood Reporter. Ms. Marvel follows the New Jersey Pakistani-American teenager as she discovers she is Inhuman. With her new superhuman abilities, Kamala must naviagte being a hero with her religious upbringing. According to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, Khan is set to appear in future Marvel films as well as her own series.