Star Wars: Is the Rey Skywalker Movie Still Happening? (And Should It?)

Suddenly, a great disturbance in the Force was heard, as Disney and Lucasfilm announced that more Star Wars movies are coming. Yes, the pile of Star Wars films percolating at Lucasfilm just got a little taller. Per THR, X-Men movie veteran Simon Kinberg will produce and write a brand new Star Wars trilogy. Interestingly, this would allegedly be a different set of films outside of The Skywalker Saga, with one writer charting out the entire new trilogy, which will presumably avoid the Sequel Trilogy’s problems of constantly oscillating between vastly different creative directions.

However, this announcement does call into question the status of another developing Star Wars project – the one that director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is set to helm, featuring the return of Daisy Ridley’s Rey Skywalker as a new Jedi Order is built. First revealed back in 2023, the production was once rumored to be eyeballing a 2026 release. With this Kinberg trilogy stewing, has Lucasfilm moved on from focusing on Sequel Trilogy fixtures like Rey?

Star Wars: Is the Rey Movie Still Happening?

It’s still early days for this proposed Kinberg Star Wars trilogy and there’s no telling if it’ll ever hit the big screen. Ask Kevin Feige, David and D.B. Weiss, and Patty Jenkins – they’ll all tell you splashy announcements do not necessarily guarantee a Star Wars movie actually getting made. Still, this does paint a potential future for Star Wars movies that could finally make room for newly-created characters; maybe the age of leaning on pre-existing movie and TV show figures is passing.

That’s why the news surrounding Kinberg’s Star Wars movie initially looked dire for the Rey movie, which has recently experienced some worrisome setbacks. The first reports about Kingberg’s trilogy said that it was extending the Skywalker Saga to Episode XII; surely such a potential project would negate the need for Obaid-Chinoy’s proposed film bringing back Rey, right? However, with Kinberg’s trilogy reportedly following new characters, it doesn’t necessarily undercut or replace Rey’s prospective next adventure.

Meanwhile, the Rey film has been burning through screenwriters at a worrisome rate. Initially, Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson were tackling this next evolution of the Star Wars saga. Then, Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) took over the script, which held a lot of potential for Rey’s next big screen adventure. After all, Knight is a prestigious artist responsible for writing some of the most beloved Peaky Blinders episodes, and a silver screen veteran thanks to writing movies like Eastern Promises. Even his misfires like Serenity have developed cult followings thanks to his bold creative instincts. Wherever Rey went next, it was a destination riddled with artistic promise.

A little over a year after Knight’s hiring, Ridley casually mentioned she still hadn’t seen the screenplay for this new Star Wars installment. Five months later, Knight departed the project with no new creative team announced to take his place. Lucasfilm has no shortage of proposed Star Wars movies on the docket, including projects from Shawn Levy, Dave Filoni, and James Mangold. Now there’s an entire trilogy of Simon Kinberg-penned movies on the way. The constant creative problems for this Rey movie (not to mention the current lack of a screenwriter) indicate those other productions could take precedent. The Galaxy far, far away may shift away from Rey and pals.

That brings us to the next big question here: should this movie even happen? Should we even get a direct follow-up to The Rise of Skywalker less than a decade after that film’s release? That’s a little thornier to answer. However, there’s no disputing that Rey should be a focal point of Star Wars media going forward. Walk around any neighborhood on Halloween night or a typical comic convention. You’re bound to see countless people dressed as Rey wielding her staff weapon from The Force Awakens. For so many people, especially younger viewers, she embodies Star Wars. She is to the Sequel Trilogy what Luke Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano were to the Original Trilogy and Clone Wars eras, respectively, of Star Wars. 

With Star Wars, Timing Is Everything

A character like that doesn’t just vanish, especially in a saga like Star Wars where characters have stories that span decades. It would only make sense for Rey to follow in the footsteps of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Luke Skywalker and come back as an older, wiser Jedi mentor for the next generation. However, should that story happen right now? Especially as Star Wars is suffocating under the weight of such a heavy over-reliance on pre-existing characters? After all, these features are now heavily connected to lines like “somehow, Palpatine has returned”. Meanwhile, The Mandalorian focused more and more on fan-friendly characters as its episode count went on. Right now, the franchise is a bit impenetrable for newcomers; Star Wars has always had a penchant for being “like poetry, so that it rhymes,” However, modern entries in this franchise have taken that phenomenon to new extremes.

Under those circumstances, hastily returning to Rey (even in a supporting capacity) might be a mistake. More crucially, suddenly saddling Ridley again with a multitude of Star Wars movies would interrupt the actor’s hot streak. In 2024, Ridley really proved her leading lady chops (not to mention her gift for such evocative facial expressions) in the enjoyable sports movie Young Woman and the Sea. She also garnered praise for headlining the dark thriller Magpie. 2025 will see her anchoring independent genre movies We Bury the Dead and Cleaner. After being a bit MIA on the big screen outside of Star Wars installments, Ridley is steadily picking up very interesting roles across a wide array of genres.

Back in the 2010s, major actors like Eddie Redmayne, Tom Hiddleston, and Elizabeth Olsen got their careers temporarily derailed by annual commitments to new blockbuster movies. The latest Yorgos Lanthimos, Lynne Ramsay, or Dee Rees movie would have to wait for these artists. They had to first fulfill a slew of contracted X-Men or DC Extended Universe titles. So far, actors like Glen Powell and Jesse Plemons have eschewed 2020s franchise roles in favor of standalone works; long-term contracts are not dictating their choices. Instead, interest in expanding their creative horizons is informing everything. It’s been exciting to see this norm become more common again. Ridley has certainly leaned into being free of Star Wars in her most recent roles.

Encasing her in further Star Wars adventures again would upend a career that’s finally picking up intriguing speed. A similar sentiment applies to filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. This Oscar-winning documentary artist is already family with the Disney empire thanks to her work helming Ms. Marvel episodes. This proposed Star Wars movie would mark not only her narrative film directorial debut. It would also make her the first woman to helm a motion picture in this saga. Though that sounds like a groundbreaking development, it’s worth asking if it’s the best use of her talents to work for a studio that recently (and controversially) publicly criticized The Marvels director Nia DaCosta under the bus.

Ridley could find so many more interesting roles to inhabit beyond getting ensnared in multiple Rey outings once again. So too could Obaid-Chinoy inevitably uncover more fulfilling creative opportunities than working within this franchise machine. Returning to documentaries or helming original narrative films means wouldn’t be confined by the visual langauge of past Star Wars projects. She’d also inevitably have more creative control than on a Disney blockbuster burning through screenwriters like logs in a fireplace during a chilly night. If nothing else, another Rey Skywalker title shouldn’t happen right away so that it frees up its creative team to pursue more exciting projects.

Star Wars is in a weird, precarious place culturally. Inevitably, The Mandalorian & Grogu will make a pretty penny when it hits theaters in May 2026. It’s not at all inconceivable for further Star Wars films beyond that Jon Favreau directorial effort to make money. However, the saga’s novelty has dulled simply thanks to a slew of often divisive Disney+ TV shows. After years of being an exclusively small-screen property, every new step the Star Wars saga takes in returning to the big screen will require delicate handling. This franchise has already experienced a major box office bomb (Solo: A Star Wars Story), it can’t afford another one.

Ironically, now is the time to really go wild and subvert audience expectations of what a Star Wars movie can look like. Offering up the unexpected would remind people of the creative audacity that first defined this saga. Given this reality, opting for another movie in the vein of The Force Awakens simply extending The Skywalker Saga is a mistake. Now is the time to explore new characters and locations, not retread familiar ground. Who knows if Simon Kinberg’s proposed trilogy lives up to that potential. However, the necessity of Star Wars to deliver something fresh means this proposed Rey Skywalker feature probably needs to get shelved for now.

The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy can be streamed on Disney+