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Credit: LucasfilmIt’s no secret that things aren’t going so well behind the scenes of Daisy Ridley’s return as Rey.
While the Star Wars franchise has thrived on Disney+ in recent years thanks to the likes of The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi, it’s been notably absent from the big screen. Since the Skywalker Saga ended with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) – which went down infamously poorly with the majority of fans and critics – Lucasfilm has paused new cinematic efforts to instead focus on the small screen.
Related: Disney ‘Star Wars’ Sequel Movie Replaces Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker
But that’s all about to change in May.
Pedro Pascal is set to reprise the role of Din Djarin (AKA The Mandalorian) in theaters with the upcoming The Mandalorian & Grogu (2026). Showrunner Jon Favreau will act as director (although it may be his final act under the Star Wars banner) and has written the film alongside Lucasfilm’s new co-president, Dave Filoni.
Filming has also wrapped on another project, Star Wars: Starfighter. Directed by Shawn Levy (with some help from Tom Cruise) and featuring Ryan Gosling, this is set to stand alone apart from the Skywalker Saga.
But beyond these films, the future of Star Wars is relatively up in the air – particularly when it comes to the long-awaited Rey film.
What’s Going On With Rey’s ‘Star Wars’ Film?
At 2023’s Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm’s then-president Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that Daisy Ridley will reprise her role of Rey from the Star Wars sequel trilogy in a new standalone film directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
The film is said to follow Rey’s efforts to rebuild the Jedi Order 15 years after the end of Rise of Skywalker. The latter ended with Rey adopting the Skywalker name (why, we don’t know), having been brought back to life by villain-turned-anti-hero Kylo Ren/Ben Solo (Adam Driver), who some fans are hoping will appear in the film after the cancellation of The Hunt For Ben Solo.
There’s a lot we still don’t know about this film – including when (or if) it will ever actually make it to theaters. In 2024, Ridley told Collider that there’s still no update on a script. “That has not changed yet,” Ridley said when asked whether she’d seen the story yet.
More recently, Ridley said that she doesn’t think there will be a concrete update on the project in 2026, but she did vow that she thinks it will be worth the wait.
Drama Plagues Rey Film Behind-The-Scenes
If a 2025 report from World of Reel is true, we won’t count on that wait ending any time soon. The site claims that Steven Knight spent over a year “trying to crack the script” and that he had apparently written at least four drafts of the film, each of which had received notes from Kathleen Kennedy about how to improve the story.
The film previously also had a script written by Damon Lindelof (who famously co-created Lost) and Justin Britt-Gibson. Lindelof later claimed that he was “asked to leave” the project and was replaced by Knight. In early 2025, Knight was replaced by George Nolfi, who previously wrote The Bourne Ultimatum.
It sounds like Lucasfilm was struggling to crack the project while Kennedy tried to steer things in the right direction. As per World of Reel, we haven’t heard half of what’s gone down behind the scenes.
“If only I could tell you what I’ve been hearing when it comes to the behind-the-scenes drama with this project,” the site claims. “I swore not to say anything, and it’s killing me to not write about it, but I’m fairly certain some of it will eventually come out.”
Related: George Lucas To Make ‘Star Wars’ Return, Report Says
Whatever this alleged “behind-the-scenes drama” may entail, we’d argue that this film was inevitably always going to spark some kind of chaos within the Star Wars community. Rey has long proven to be a divisive figure in the fandom, with some fans claiming that she is a Mary Sue whose advanced Force abilities just aren’t justified.
(A lot of these fans seem to forget that this is the same cinematic universe in which a nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker accidentally destroys a Federation droid control ship, but we’ll save that argument for another time.)
There’s also been plenty of pushback from some Star Wars fans about its female leads in general. The Acolyte – in which Amandla Stenberg portrays two lead characters, Mae and Osha – received its fair share of hate for this very reason, leading to its showrunner, Leslye Headland, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “I stand by my empathy for Star Wars fans. But I want to be clear. Anyone who engages in bigotry, racism, or hate speech … I don’t consider a fan.”
When Can We Expect More Updates on the Rey Film?
With Kennedy out of the picture, there’s every chance that things could accelerate on the release front for Star Wars soon enough.
Recent reports suggest that Lucasfilm is using the performance of The Mandalorian & Grogu to assess how it tackles Filoni’s previously announced MandoVerse team-up film. It’s possible that the project’s success could also determine the fate of future projects – Rey’s standalone film included.
Are you excited about Rey’s Star Wars return?