Back at last year’s Star Wars Celebration event in London, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy announced a trio of new movies would soon be coming out, James Mangold would be creating a movie set thousands of years before “The Phantom Menace”, Dave Filoni was creating a new film set in the “Mandalorian” era, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy would be directing a new film set after the events of “The Rise Of Skywalker”, that would see Daisy Ridley return as Rey, in what the internet has called “Star Wars: The New Jedi Order”.

Since that initial announcement over 18 months ago, development on the films hasn’t really moved forward that much, though earlier this year,  Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who previously directed episodes of the Disney+ series “Ms. Marvel”, revealed while promoting her latest Hulu/Star Original documentary about designer Diane von Furstenberg, said:

“The story that interests me most is in Rey’s journey as a female Jedi.  That’s how I can best bring my experiences to it.”

Recently, Daisy Ridley spoke during a Q&A session for her new movie, “Magpie”, where she was asked about the upcoming “Rey” movie, where she said:

“Things are evolving. I continue to be very excited. There will be an update soon.”

She also told People while promoting her movie that her husband knows the story for the upcoming film, but is sworn to secrecy and explained her joy in coming back to the character:

“Coming back to it, I mean, it felt, honestly, I was like, ‘Oh my God, really?’ I was really surprised when Kathleen [Kennedy] asked, but how could I not? I mean, I love [Rey] as a character, and I love the films. I love the potential of the next one,”

Late last year, Disney also announced that Jon Favreau’s new movie “The Mandalorian and Grogu” will be the next Star Wars theatrical release in May 2026.   This new film is essentially the fourth season of the Disney+ series, but it’s being reformated into a film since Disney wants Star Wars to refocus on films rather than shows.

Disney currently has two more movies slated to be released on its calendar, one in December 2026 and one in December 2027, which many assumed would be the upcoming “Rey” movie.

However, the “Rey” movie looks to have hit another stumbling block, as Puck has reported that the film’s writer, Steven Knight, has dropped out of the project.  He’s the third writer to have quit working on the project, following the departures of Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson last year.

Recently, Steven Knight has been working with Disney’s studios on several projects, including FX’s “The Veil” and the upcoming British Disney+ Original series “A Thousand Blows.” He is also working on a new film adaptation of his popular BBC series “Peaky Blinders.”

Production was originally expected to begin on the upcoming “Rey” movie in early 2025, but the film’s loss of its writer puts that in jeopardy and will likely result in a delay of a potential release.  However, the good news is that Lucasfilm is now looking for a new writer for the project.

Roger’s Take:  Lucasfilm’s shift to Disney+ projects seems to have distracted them from theatrical releases, and in the past five years, we’ve had almost a dozen different projects announced that have seemed to have gone nowhere.  Lucasfilm needs to pull back on its habit of announcing new projects until they’ve actually got something at least filmed, as it’s eroding trust in Lucasfilm. 

With the negative reaction to “The Last Jedi” and “The Rise Of Skywalker”, plus many of the Disney+ series like “The Acolyte” and “The Book Of Boba Fett”.  Lucasfilm needs to knock the next few releases out of the park and that fits with Disney’s plans for fewer releases and a focus on quality over quantity.  I do think the “Rey’ movie is much more likely to happen than many of the other projects, but the story has to be spot-on to restore the brand. 

Do you think the “Rey” Star Wars film will be released?  Let me know on social media!

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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