Credit: LucasfilmWe don’t know when (if ever) it will hit theaters, but there’s already plenty of buzz around the next Star Wars film focused on Rey.
As was announced at Star Wars Celebration 2023 (yes, two whole years ago), Lucasfilm is set to bring back Daisy Ridley for a standalone film in her breakthrough role of Rey for the first time since Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker (2019). In terms of plot, all we have so far is the revelation that it will focus on Rey rebuilding the Jedi after the fall of the First Order – and, according to Ridley, it’s “really cool.”
The thing is that the place where we last left Rey wasn’t quite so cool. Rise of Skywalker received serious backlash from fans and critics alike upon its release, and its standing hasn’t improved much in the fandom since.
From the redemption and subsequent death of Kylo Ren to the explanation of Palpatine himself just “somehow” coming back from the dead (the details don’t matter, apparently; it’s something to do with the Force), some of the film’s more outlandish decisions were deemed questionable by those who expected more from the climax of the Skywalker Saga.
What Changes Can We Expect From the New Rey Movie?
When Daisy Ridley joined Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy onstage to announce what is often referred to as Star Wars: New Jedi Order, it was the first time fans received any glimpse of hope that Star Wars could somehow, someday, right Rise of Skywalker’s wrongs.
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Let’s get one thing straight: the odds of Lucasfilm ever scrubbing its most controversial plot points from the franchise are slim. Even if it did go down the classic George Lucas route of tweaking the sequel trilogy years after its release, the internal debate this would spark among the Star Wars fandom (not to mention the Reylos) would be borderline catastrophic.
However, there is now at least space to either gloss over or build upon certain threads introduced throughout the trilogy. In an ideal world, this is what would change (and what would stay the same) – that’s if Lucasfilm ever gets around to getting this thing into production.
Should: Rey Skywalker
In the final scene of Rise of Skywalker, Rey is asked for her name, to which she responds, “Rey… Skywalker.”
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Ask any group of Star Wars fans how they feel about this ending, and you’ll most likely get at least one response of complete and utter disgust. Because the thing is, Rey isn’t a Skywalker.
In the grand scheme of things, she barely knew anyone who actually identified with the name — her time with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) was brief, and as far as we know, Leia (Carrie Fisher) never used the surname — so it can’t even be argued that she adopted the name because she felt like a Skywalker in all but blood.
Identity was a huge theme for Rey’s character. There’s plenty to be said about why Rey should have been a nobody (and we’ll get onto her actual heritage in a bit), but for now, all we’ll say is that latching onto another identity is hardly the ending a character on a journey of self-discovery deserves. Let’s just sweep this one under the rug and be done with it.
Shouldn’t: Rey’s Friendships
For now, Ridley is the only star confirmed to return from the sequel trilogy. However, even if John Boyega and Oscar Isaac don’t appear as Finn and Poe, it would do a disservice to the characters to pretend like they never existed in the first place.
One of the biggest mistakes the sequel trilogy made was never having the OG big three — Luke, Leia, and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) — reunite on screen. In fact, there wasn’t all that much to do with their actual friendships or relationships at all beyond a couple of clunky Han-Leia divorce references and Luke’s 20-second goodbye to his sister in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017).
Ridley doesn’t necessarily need to share scenes with her former co-stars. The important thing is that the film doesn’t just pretend like they never existed. If it does, then the entire trilogy and Rey’s arc of finally finding her place in the world may as well have never existed.
Should: Rey Palpatine
Rey Skywalker is bad. Rey Palpatine is even worse. The miraculous return of the Emperor was unbelievable enough, but the revelation that he fathered a child who went on to have Rey was something else entirely.
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Of course, we don’t expect New Jedi Order to address this storyline in depth. Somehow, we don’t see Rey spending the entire movie languishing in her own evil heritage. However, if the film doesn’t want to mention it once, we won’t complain. Palpatine who?
Shouldn’t: Luke’s Mentorship
Luke and Rey’s acquaintanceship was surprisingly brief, with the retired Jedi spending most of his time storming around the island of Ahch-To and grumpily denouncing the Force.
Seeing him step into the Force Ghost mentor role previously filled by the likes of Yoda (Frank Oz) and Obi-Wan (Alec Guinness) was one of the few real highlights in Rise of Skywalker. Considering his own knowledge and (failed) attempt at reviving the Jedi Order, it only makes sense for the film to bring him back in a similar vein.
Should: Rey’s Lightsaber
It should have been so obvious. Rey spends the bulk of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) running around wielding a staff as her primary weapon. Like Darth Maul before her, she uses both sides in battle — so obviously, her Lightsaber follows a similar design.
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Well, no. Another controversial moment in the final scene of Rise of Skywalker sees Rey whip out a standard Lightsaber in an eye-wateringly dull shade of yellow. For her own sake (and, we’ll be real, for ours too), we hope she’s treated herself to an upgrade by the time Star Wars: New Jedi Order rolls around.
Shouldn’t: The Dark Side
The sequel trilogy never really knew what to do with Rey’s brewing dark side. The Last Jedi got close, seeing her relate to Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and scare Luke Skywalker himself with her untapped power. Rise of Skywalker skims over it, only briefly touching on Rey’s temptation to the dark with a vision of herself as a Sith after discovering her true, admittedly evil heritage.
There was a point where it seemed like the sequels were going somewhere interesting with this storyline — especially when it introduced a more critical look at the ethos of the Jedi in The Last Jedi. Some fans even hoped the third installment in the franchise would draw inspiration from the concept of Gray Jedi, AKA those who refuse to operate wholly in the light or the dark but somewhere in between.
But that did not end up being the case. Rey bowed out of the sequels on the path to true Jedihood, having called upon past Jedi, including Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and Mace Windu (Samuel L. Jackson), to support her in the final showdown with Palpatine.
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It’s definitely not too late for Star Wars: New Jedi Order to go down the more interesting route. Should it decide not to erase Rey’s darkness for the sake of making her the purest, most dedicated of Jedi, it has the opportunity to interrogate what was wrong with the Jedi Order in the first place and find a more sustainable path to keep it strong moving forward.
Another interesting element set up by the sequels was the concept of the Knights of Ren. Until this point, Star Wars has always suggested that there are good users of the Force (Jedi) and bad users (Sith). While certainly on the Dark Side, Kylo Ren’s lackeys were decidedly not Sith, essentially creating a whole new idea of how characters could use the Force for evil.
Ditching that concept completely seems like a waste – and, ultimately, exploring the “gray” areas of the Force sounds much more interesting than yet another installment focused on straightforward good versus evil.
What would you like to see from the new Rey Star Wars movie? Let us know in the comments!