Actress Daisy Ridley, who is supposed to be reprising her role as Rey in an upcoming New Jedi Order, revealed she still has not seen a script for the film.
Daisy Ridley as Rey in The Force Awakens (2015), Lucasfilm
In an interview with Collider while promoting her film Magpie at SXSW, Ridley seemingly confirmed the title of the film will be New Jedi Order while also noting she hasn’t seen a script yet.
When asked about whether the title would be New Jedi Order, Ridley said, “I don’t know! I mean, I think so. From the announcement, I don’t think that’s changed.”
She then revealed she hadn’t read a script yet, “I know a script is happening, and I’m going to be reading it imminently, which is very exciting.”
Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Lucasfilm
Ridley did share that she expects the film to start shooting either at the end of this year or early next year.
She said, “I think it could be this year. It could be, but I’m not sure. I think to be honest, the writers’ strike has obviously delayed quite a lot of things. So the intention was later this year. Hopefully, it will be. Otherwise, top of next, I would imagine.”
Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Lucasfilm
This latest interview comes on the back of Ridley revealing in January she hadn’t read a script. She appeared on Today and said, “I actually haven’t read a script yet. But the story I’ve been told is fantastic and I’m there. I’m in it.”
She added, “It’s a very worthwhile story and Sharmeen is going to do an amazing job.”
Daisy Ridley speaks on TODAY about being a part of the upcoming Star Wars film “Star Wars: New Jedi Order” and reacts to conversations online about the film having a woman director. pic.twitter.com/Ju17myPDkm
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) January 25, 2024
The actress also previously revealed the entire movie came together last minute. She told AlloCiné, “Yes, that was actually quite last minute. I was actually making my own film last year and [Lucasfilm President] Kathy Kennedy said she wanted to have breakfast and I thought we were just having breakfast and so I was literally eating my breakfast and she said, ‘Oh, we might do another one.’ I was like, ‘Okay.’”
Ridley continued, “So I thought about it for a little bit. Once I knew what the story was and everything, I knew that it was something I really wanted to do. I think it’s a really fantastic exploration of the Star Wars world.”
“It’s a really cool way of taking the story on in a bit of a different direction,” she added.
READ: Daisy Ridley Rejects Feminist Attack On Star Wars Fans, Claims “Things Get Blown Out Of Proportion”
There have been numerous rumors surrounding the script for the film. One rumor from Jason Ward at Making Star Wars claimed that Steven Knight had not turned in a script.
He said, “Today, I was told that Knight hasn’t written, hasn’t got to get to it. The scheduling, the stars did not align. Steven Knight was simply the person that if they picked up, who they could get in that moment and then it never lined up.”
Ward clarified, “Not saying he’s off of it. Not saying he’s gonna write it or not gonna write it. I don’t know.”
Another rumor from WDW Pro claimed Lucasfilm had at least two scripts in the works, but ditched one of them.
He shared, “So there are two iterations of the Rey script that I am aware of that I can talk about according to rumor. And those are apparently early on in development the idea was that Rey would be pregnant with a child and that offscreen she would have become pregnant somehow through the Force ghost of Kylo Ren in a way that would have been explained but not presented on screen.”
“They could not have Rey be pregnant with any other any other person than Kylo Ren and that was to placate the Reylo fans fans out there and then the story was going to push forward to when her child was about nine years old, a daughter,” he elaborated. “And that daughter was going to be training in the New Jedi Temple with Rey and with the other Padawans. That this nine-year-old daughter was going to combine the light and the dark and form a new type of Jedi.”
He continued, “And then they were going to face off against … is it Darth Plagueis… Well, apparently he was going to be back. And so that was the first iteration of the script.”
Pro went on to share why this idea was trashed, “So that that was discarded. They did not feel that that would quell the complaints about Rey being a Palpatine and they didn’t want to fool with that. There were also concerns that Daisy Ridley’s character was a side character and that her daughter would be the the lead and that was going to be an issue.”
He later detailed, “This script didn’t really have a lot of oversight from Disney executives beyond Lucasfilm.”
Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Lucasfilm
As for the second script, he shared his belief that it was the one done by Steven Knight. As far as its plot details, WDW Pro stated, “That one, where Disney became involved, that involved Rey and Finn fighting against a villain, a new villain, who was a combination of a Nightsister and a Sith. So a Sith who had learned to take on the powers of the Nightsisters and combined the Force with the magic of the witches. And that Rey and Finn would be combined together to take on that foe.”
He continued, “I’m also told that Grogu would make a cameo in both of these, but that Grogu had been scaled back dramatically due to needing to save him for the Mandalorian movie and because of the change in production and releases related to the strikes that were going on.”
(L-R): Din Djarin (Pedro Pascal), Grogu and Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) with the Mandalorian gauntlet shield in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
READ: New Star Wars Rumor Claims Daisy Ridley’s Rey Is Killed In Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy New Jedi Order Film
Overlord DVD shared another rumor that seemed to corroborate some of WDW Pro’s rumor claiming that Ridley’s Rey is killed off.
He explained, “According to this source, the Rey movie is still based on a rejected script that had been rewritten countless times, at least six times now. It’s basically Rey restarting the Jedi Order and she is either pregnant with Ben’s kid or has had Ben’s kid and he’s evil.”
“Well, it turns out there’s a new rewrite of this script and it goes something like this: Rey starts the new Jedi Academy to train her twins, a girl and a boy. As they grow the boy turns to the Dark Side and kills Rey and the movie focuses on the sister believing she can turn her brother back to the Light,” he concluded.
A press release officially detailed that the movie is “set 15 years after the last events of the Skywalker Saga. Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy will tell the story of rebuilding the New Jedi Order and the powers that rise to tear it down; the director then delighted fans by welcoming Daisy Ridley to stage, confirming she will be reprising her beloved role as Rey in the upcoming movie.”
Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy would later inform IGN, “We’re 15 years out from Rise of Skywalker. So we’re kind of post-war, post-First Order and the Jedi are in disarray. And there’s a lot of discussion around who are the Jedi, what are they doing, what’s the state of the galaxy? And she’s attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order based on the books, based on what she promised Luke.”
Kennedy concluded, “So that’s where we’re going.”
She also shared details to Entertainment Weekly’s Dagobah Dispatch, “We’ve been talking a lot about going well into the past and one of the things that’s really knitting this all together, obviously, are the Jedi. What happened with the Jedi overtime, much like history? How did the Jedi evolve? They were wiped out with Order 66 then they gradually have been coming back. The question that we’re going to ask with New Jedi Order and with Rey is: Does the galaxy need them anymore? Do they want them back?”
“So there’s a lot of food for thought in what we’re doing whether it’s in the past, present, or future,” she said.
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: Kathleen Kennedy onstage during the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)
To Games Radar she relayed, “I think what’s always great about Star Wars is it’s a big galaxy, and we’re coming off what was a major war with the First Order. And now, Rey has made a promise to Luke and that’s really the core of where we’re going and what this story will be.”
She continued, “And I think it offers just tremendous opportunity to introduce new characters and start with something fresh, because we culminated with what George [Lucas] was creating, and now we take all of that and move it to the next chapter.”
These themes are supposed to tie-in to the announced James Mangold film. Kennedy explained, “It was something that Jim [Mangold] immediately sparked to, and I think it’s a really nice compliment to what we’re doing with moving into the future with Rey, and then understanding a bit more of where this all came from. Because it will be at the heart of creating the new Jedi Order, so to get a real sense of where that might have began with the dawn of the Jedi could be pretty cool.”
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: (L-R) Daisy Ridley, Kathleen Kennedy and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy attend the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)
What do you make of Daisy Ridley’s recent comments that she still hasn’t read a script for New Jedi Order?
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