Victoria Mahoney named second unit director on Star Wars: Episode IX
We don’t usually spill a lot of ink on the status of second unit directors—i.e., the leaders of the teams tasked with filming stuff like action scenes and other less-central shots on the set of a blockbuster film—but we’re happy to make an exception for Star Wars, and, specifically, the news that Disney has hired Victoria Mahoney to take the role on the upcoming Star Wars: Episode IX. The news was trumpeted today by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, a friend of the film’s top director, J.J. Abrams, who was clearly thrilled at the thought of a black woman making inroads in a franchise that’s frequently struggled to get people who aren’t white men in leading positions behind the camera.