Before anyone tries to downplay the hire, Victoria Mahoney being a second unit director for Episode IX is in fact a pretty big deal. A second unit director might not film with the principal characters, but she is also not an assistant director. She operates independantly from the first unit and is fully in charge of the actors, stuntspeople, and set while she has them. She has a full complement of staff and crew, if on a smaller scale than the first unit. For these reasons the job is often considered the last step to being a full-fledged director.
So Mahoney being second-unit director in a movie on the scale of Star Wars, with its crucial action scenes and stunt coordinations, will definitely put her on the fast track to directing her own big films. And if directors of Ava DuVernay and J.J. Abrams’ caliber went to bat for her you can bet your ass she deserves every big movie to come her way and more.
@rainysweetsstarfish Or maybe she got hired because she knows her stuff. Look, I understand your suspicion of LF and share in it, and I rather suspect she was Ava and JJ’s pick way more than KK/LF’s. You won’t find me getting starry-eyed about LF’s anti-racist credentials anytime soon. That said, you also won’t find me believing for a second that Ava DuVernay would put forward a sub-par hire or that JJ would accept a second unit director he can’t trust to film amazing supplemental footage and to keep his look and feel consistent. Please don’t let your understandable bitterness toward LF infect what is a great moment for a Black woman director’s future.
funeral-biscuit 