For the past five years, the Star Wars saga has been locked in a battle between its past and future. Its once-promising sequel trilogy may be the greatest example of the franchise’s fractured priorities, as it seemed to cement the studio’s affinity for nostalgia for nostalgia’s sake. While The Last Jedi strove to push the saga forward by confronting the franchise’s legacy, its follow-up, The Rise of Skywalker, brought its story right back to square one. Progress on the big screen has been stalled ever since, but according to sources close to Lucasfilm, the sequels also might hold the key to the end of this slump.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the future of Star Wars belongs to Rey Skywalker. Played by Daisy Ridley in the sequel trilogy, the heir to the Skywalker legacy could become the focus of multiple theatrical projects. Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was tapped to direct a Rey-focused movie back in 2023, and with Star Wars alum Simon Kinberg developing a new trilogy for Lucasfilm, there’s a chance that the Skywalker saga could finally be turning the page with her at the helm.
“[Rey] is the most valuable cinematic asset, in some ways maybe the only one, Star Wars has right now,” an insider told THR. She’s certainly the character with the most potential. After the demise of Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), Rey is the last surviving Jedi. Other members of the sequel trilogy survived The Rise of Skywalker and could feasibly return, but anchoring a new trilogy around Rey makes the most sense. Through her, the franchise could finally move in a fresh direction. More importantly, it could remedy the mistakes of the sequels, including one that’s gnawed at fans for nearly a decade.
Since Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey film entered development, the project has been known by an unofficial (if presumptive) title, Star Wars: New Jedi Order. Multiple sources have suggested that Rey will take up Luke Skywalker’s old crusade and form the Jedi anew. It seems like a natural progression for the character, as the sequels taught Rey to embrace some parts of the old regime while rejecting the dogma that ultimately destroyed the Order. Obaid-Chinoy’s film could see Rey forming a new Jedi Academy years after defeating the First Order, and that quest could feasibly continue in Kinberg’s trilogy.
This potential story isn’t unfamiliar to Star Wars fans; the non-canon Legends timeline dedicated novels and comics to Luke’s own Jedi Academy. When Hamill was slated to return as Luke in The Force Awakens, many hoped the film would cherry-pick elements from that timeline and introduce a new class of Jedi warriors. The Force Awakens instead subverted those hopes, reintroducing Luke as a broken man whose most promising pupil destroyed his life’s work. We never get to see Luke’s academy at its peak, or meet the Jedi students he trained (save for Kylo Ren). To call that choice underwhelming is an understatement, especially since it could have saved The Force Awakens from falling into a retread of the original trilogy.
Those narrative mistakes can’t be changed now, but a potential Rey trilogy benefits from hindsight. More than ever before, the Star Wars saga needs a story about rebirth rather than devastation. And if the Skywalker saga wants to continue, it can’t keep farming nostalgia. A new Jedi Order could strike the perfect balance between past and present and set up a different kind of story, especially with Rey at its center. This new phase doesn’t have to be complicated. If Rey really is the key to Lucasfilm’s future success, then let her succeed a little.
