Although 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker concluded the Skywalker Saga that had been running ever since A New Hope launched the Star Wars franchise in 1977, we’re not done spending time with one of the Sequel Trilogy’s main protagonists. In April 2023, it was announced that Daisy Ridley will reprise Rey in a Star Wars movie focused on her building a new Jedi Order. While we’re still in the dark about what can be specifically expected from this story, Ridley has opened up about the circumstances that led to her agreeing to appear in this upcoming Star Wars movie, (in which John Boyega is also rumored to return), calling it something she “really wanted to do.”
The actress shared while speaking with AlloCiné about her new movie Sometimes I Think About Dying, which opens January 24 on the 2024 release schedule, that she was approached by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy for what she thought was just going to be a normal breakfast. The executive instead used the meal as an opportunity to pitch Ridley to return to a galaxy far, far away. The Rey performer recalled:
I was actually making my own film last year, and Kathy Kennedy said she wanted to have breakfast, and I thought we were just having breakfast. So I was literally eating my breakfast, and she said, ‘Oh, we might do another one.’ I was like, ‘Ok.’ So I thought about it for a little bit. Once I knew what the story was and everything I knew that it was something I really wanted to do. I think it's a really fantastic exploration of the Star Wars world. It's a really cool way of taking the story on in a bit of a different direction.
Considering that Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher didn’t reprise their Star Wars roles until more than three decades after Return of the Jedi’s release, if Daisy Ridley hadn’t already assumed she’d never play Rey again, I imagine she at least thought a lot more time would have passed before she returned to the franchise. And yet, whatever Kathleen Kennedy told her at that breakfast was enough to persuade her to come back. Naturally it’ll be a while before Ridley will be able to disclose the specifics of their conversation, but I’m curious to eventually learn what aspects of the story piqued her interest.
While Star Wars did use the comic book series Star Wars Adventures to reveal what happened to Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron immediately after The Rise of Skywalker, this Rey movie will be our first major exploration of the post-Skywalker Saga timeline. Picking up 15 years after The First Order was overthrown and Palpatine was defeated… again (let’s hope this time it sticks), Rey has been a full-fledged Jedi for a long time and is overseeing training a new generation of these benevolent Force users. It hasn’t been clarified yet, however, whether she’ll be the main protagonist or if she’ll play a supporting role akin to Luke Skywalker in The Last Jedi.
This Rey movie will be directed by Ms. Marvel’s Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, and Peaky Blinders’ Steven Knight wrote the script. No release date has been set yet, but it is one of four Star Wars movies that have been officially announced, the latest being The Mandalorian & Grogu. Revisit the past Star Wars movies in order and the the franchise’s TV shows with your Disney+ subscription.
