Is the Rey Star Wars Movie on Hold?
Rey Skywalker-Palpatine-Nobody-Terwilliger just can’t catch a break. A Star Wars movie centering on Rey, the main character in the sequel trilogy played by Daisy Ridley, was first announced at Star Wars Celebration in 2023. The film, the title of which is believed to be Star Wars: New Jedi Order, was set to be directed by Pakistani documentary filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, with a targeted release of sometime in 2025. Since then, it has gone through a series of screenwriters, and each changing of the guard has delayed it further. First, Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson turned in a draft, and they either left or were fired, meaning 2025 was out of the question. Then, Peaky Blinders creator Steve Knight came aboard, and the release date was moved to December 2026; after reportedly delivering four drafts of the script, all of which were sent back with notes from Kathleen Kennedy, King left the project, as did hopes of having it in the can by the end of 2026. Currently, New Jedi Order is being written by George Nolfi, who co-wrote The Bourne Ultimatum, with no release date mentioned, which is probably a smart move.
Now, however, the Rey movie may have hit yet another roadblock, as scooper Daniel Ritchman (via Sci-Fi and Fantasy Gazette) claims that New Jedi Order is on hold so Lucasfilm can focus on the two other Star Wars movies already in various stages of development. One of those is Star Wars: Starfighter, a standalone film unconnected to the main series from director Shawn Levy that will star Ryan Gosling and Mia Goth. Starfighter is set to start shooting in the fall of 2025 and hit theaters on May 28, 2027. The other is the currently title-free Star Wars movie from James Mangold, which will explore the formation of the Jedi; that film is still being written. In addition to the two movies Ritchman mentions, there is The Mandalorian and Grogu, the cinematic follow-up to the hit (at one point) Disney+ series The Mandalorian, starring Pedro Pascal and a CGI-augmented puppet. The Mandalorian and Grogu, which also stars Sigourney Weaver, is so far along that filming was completed at the end of last year, and it’s scheduled to be released on May 22, 2026. Ritchman says that the Rey movie has not been canceled, but it is on hold while these other movies are developed. However, on the podcast The Hot Mic, Jeff Sneider claimed the film is not “on hold” but that Lucasfilm is just waiting for a finished script; Sneider also says that “there are multiple projects being developed with Rey as the lead character.”
Regardless of which one of these scoopers is right (Sneider seems to have a better track record than Richtman to me, for what that’s worth), it does look like New Jedi Order is going to be the last of the current slate to begin production, and that’s indicative of how much trouble the central Star Wars storyline – which, as much as I don’t like it, Rey’s story is now – is in. Disney and Lucasfilm must know Rey isn’t as popular as they’d hoped she’d be; otherwise, she’d have been in at least a couple of Star Wars movies since The Rise of Skywalker. Instead, she’s being pushed aside for a couple of TV characters, a standalone film that was pitched about a year ago, and some prequel about the formation of the Jedi, or the early days of the Jedi, or something along those lines. And while Lucasfilm talks a good game about Rey being their big star right now, reality doesn’t seem to conform to that narrative. Sneider says there are other Rey movies in development, but are they even at the scripting stage? They seem to be fairly lackadaisical about their new central character being on screen again. There’s also Kathleen Kennedy’s likely retirement from running Lucasfilm to consider; when she goes, which looks like it will be late this year or early next year, will Disney be eager to keep her pet project going? Star Wars remains in a sort of holding pattern for now, but what’s most damning is that until another news item or rumor surfaces, nobody seems to be talking about it much.
Let us know what you think of the Rey Star Wars movie being delayed again in the comments!
***
Get a META PC today; use code “199” to save on all purchases!
If you want to know what kind of political leanings movies have or just talk about cinema, check out the movie ratings community Criticless.
Get Your Geeks + Gamers “Uncle Idot” t-shirts to celebrate Flag Day and the 4th of July here! (Who is Idot?)
