Daisy Ridley’s Rey set to play role in several new Star Wars movies

The Star Wars franchise is one of the biggest in the world, but Lucasfilm is clearly struggling to get the next stage of movies off the ground. It’s been nearly five years since the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but it still feels as though the studio doesn’t have a clear plan for what’s next. Sure, there’s been plenty of projects announced, but so many of them have been shelved or are in limbo. However, a report from THR states that when Star Wars does return, Rey (Daisy Ridley) will be playing a role in several movies and that she will be “key to the franchise’s next turn.“

Daisy Ridley was already set to return as Rey for Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s (Ms. Marvel) movie, but it’s looking as though she may have a part to play in the recently announced trilogy from Simon Kinberg (Dark Phoenix) as well. The standalone Rey movie was meant to have been in production already, but it recently lost Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders) as writer. It remains to be seen which project(s) will move forward first, but a source close to the franchise told THR that Rey “is the most valuable cinematic asset, in some ways maybe the only one, Star Wars has right now.“

They’re not wrong. Many of the franchise’s biggest characters have either been killed off, or their storylines have concluded. When it comes to pre-existing characters to work with, another source said, “The closet is a little bare.“

The originally announced Rey movie takes place fifteen years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and finds Rey attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has previously teased the movie: “The First Order has fallen, the Jedi are in chaos — there’s even a question of how many exist anymore — and Rey’s building the New Jedi Order, based on the training that she was given and that Luke imparted on her.” The movie will launch the next chapter of the franchise, with Ridley even saying that it will take it in a “different direction.“

Based on this new report, it seems that the race is on to see which Star Wars project featuring Rey will be the first to be released.