In a stunning announcement, Lucasfilm unveiled a new film set 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker which will star Daisy Ridley as she returns to the role of Rey Skywalker.
The film, which is untitled, will focus on the formation of a new Jedi Order led by Rey, and will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the director of Ms. Marvel. Rey has taken on the title of Jedi Master in the movie.
Ridley was last seen in The Rise of Skywalker where her character claimed the name of Skywalker following her defeat of her grandfather, Sheev Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) at the conclusion of the movie. The sequel trilogy was based around her character, and her rise from nobody into Jedi as she joined forces with Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) while battling against Adam Driver's Kylo Ren.
Speaking of her time as Rey, Ridley had previously said: "What was interesting about the last one, for me, was that you can be a hero and not come from anywhere or you can be a hero and come from literally the worst person in the universe," said Ridley. "You're not your parents, you're not your grandparents, you're not your bloodline and you're not the generations before you."
The return to the role for Ridley offers her a chance to write some of the wrongs that followed the release of Rise of Skywalker, which was and the final installment in the 40-plus year Skywalker saga — the foundation upon which the rest of the Star Wars universe and fandom is built — received lukewarm to negative reviews from critics and some fans despite cracking the $500 million mark in domestic earnings and $1 billion worldwide. Ridley spoke to the DragCast podcast (via Entertainment Weekly) as the venue to air her thoughts on the Rise of Skywalker critiques.
"It’s changed film by film honestly, like 98% it’s so amazing, this last film it was really tricky. January was not that nice. It was weird, I felt like all of this love that we’d sort of been shown the first time around, I was like, 'Where’s the love gone?' I guess now conversations are just more public, so there’s stuff I wouldn’t have seen, but honestly trying to scroll through my newsfeed in January and trying to not see Star Wars stuff, I’d see headlines and be like 'Oh my god this is so upsetting.' So it’s been tricky, but then it’s having that thing of I feel really proud of it, and I’m so thrilled to be part of it."
Collider will have more information on the new Star Wars movie as it becomes available.