Is Disney really thinking about going back to Rey to drum up support for the sequel trilogy, Star Wars and even the Galactic Starcruiser?
The Star Wars Galaxy is in a weird time right now. Andor, which was widely agreed to be one of the best things to come out of Disney Lucasfilm, came and went with very little fanfare. Almost nobody watched it despite the show have teaser episodes dropped outside of the Disney+ paywall over on Hulu, on cable with Freeform and FX, and even broadcast television at ABC. In case you missed that, it was during Thanksgiving weekend 2022.
The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew live-action series are both near the end of production (if production hasn’t wrapped already). The Bad Batch is currently dropping episodes every Wednesday, but not many people are talking about it. Did you know that there was an anthology series about Count Dooku before he fell to the dark side and Ahsoka on the run after Order 66? The die-hards did. The normies not so much. Somewhere in Japan, several studios are working on the second season of Visions.
Supposedly Damon Lindleof is working on a Star Wars movie right now as Rian Johnson crafts a new trilogy in the middle of his busy schedule building out the Benoit Blanc universe and the production of the Poker Face TV series for Peacock. Lindleof might even be casting his film, depending on who you believe. I wouldn’t bet money on either of those making it to production any time soon. Supposedly there’s Star Wars series for Disney Junior out there in development too.
Even Mandalorian, the crown jewel of Disney+, is not getting the buzz that one might expect.
With so much going on in Star Wars, it’s surprising that fan sentiment seems to be at an all-time low. If I were at Lucasfilm I might be considering my next move to revitalize a dying company. With the threat of mass layoff, I wouldn’t be counting on Indiana Jones V to swing and pull me out of a burning cantina.
Which brings me to this: Why was Daisy Ridley at Lucasfilm in December?
Daisy Ridley is at Lucasfilm, make of that what you will. pic.twitter.com/bJGAqLgw9b
— Okiro (@TheFirstOkiro) December 1, 2022
The tweet is from Okiro’s Twitter account, but it shows a fleeting Instagram Story from Daisy Ridley. Now, it’s a difficult detail to spot in the picture, but that statue appears to be one of the main Jedi Masters of a small series of films called “The Star Wars” that goes by the name of Yoda. (Forgive my joke, let’s keep going). This is one of several Yoda statues at Lucasfilm. The picture behind it appears to be Ralph McQuarrie concept art of Bespin.
This would have been just two weeks after previous Disney CEO Bob Chapek was fired. The company would have presumably been in flux as Bob Iger came back in, ready to make changes and quickly. Before this, the word on the street was that the head of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy had been given a corporate gag order telling her not to announce any more projects without direct CEO approval. People were starting to notice that nothing was actually on the schedule (at the box office at least). Those keeping track might have noticed that I left off Kevin Feige’s Star Wars movie AND Taiki Waititi’s Star Wars movie just to see if people were paying attention.
So, was Daisy Ridley told to post this to Instagram to ignite a small fire in the fan community that would ultimately lead to rising demand for more Rey Palpatine-Skywalker? Or maybe just test the waters? Or maybe Daisy Ridley was there for more straight-forward reasons like discussing an upcoming project at Lucasfilm. Could have just been to visit her best friend Kathy.
Den of Nerds tweeted out a few days ago that he thinks something is brewing for fans of Rey:
Daisy Ridley is def coming back as Rey from what I've heard. I think you'll start to see more and more of her talking Star Wars leading up to the announcement.
— Josh (@TheDenofNerds) January 23, 2023
Ridley should be wrapping up production on The Young Woman and the Sea which tells the story of the first woman to swim the English Channel. Whatever is going on with that production, Disney seems keen to snap up the talent involved. The director Joachim Rønning is supposed to be in early talks to direct Tron Ares starring perpetual mystifier Jared Leto.
Does this mean that “somehow” the sequel trilogy will be continued? Or maybe they’re just reshooting something for the Disney Parks? If George Lucas were still involved it could also be to talk about pickups and reshoots for an unnecessary change to VII, VIII, or IX…
What do you think?
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This is Kathleen Kennedy trying to piss in the wheaties one last time out the door.
Sometimes I wonder why I even click on Star Wars news any more…it’s strictly out of habit at this point because my interest level is Zero.
This is a KK job, I think, and it won’t last. Though to be clear, I liked Daisy Ridley and think Rey could be a good character if some serious fleshing out happens.
I’m not taking the bait. Let me know when there is a date set for a theatrical release…
No, no. No, no, no. Please, just no. The queen of anything you can do I can do perfectly, the first time, with little to no experience needs to drift into obscurity.
Whether this pans out or not I’d hazard a guess that any plan to bring back Rey is the cheaper of multiple options before Disney/LFL at the moment:
Galaxies Edge and Galactic Starcruiser aren’t the smashing success they had hoped for, for various reasons but I think the most commonly cited is lack of interest in the sequel era. Interest waned incredibly quickly and I’d imagine I don’t need to rehash that for fans frequenting this site. Its clear their huge park investments already need a refresh but the cheaper interim alternative to get them across the line on the originally intended life cycle before a big refresh would be to find a way to regenerate interest in the characters, specifically Rey. So they put out a streaming series featuring Rey, find a way to incorporate some other more popular characters and see if they can drive engagement on sequel-related content which is far, far cheaper than a huge early overhaul of Galaxies Edge to feature the Mando-verse. So if Rey does not make a come back I’d wager its because Iger now back in charge has made the determination that a massive game changing overhaul is the only solution to Disneys Star Wars problem and a bunch of little half measures just isn’t enough.
Or the dream scenario for some is have Rey be the one to enter the “world between worlds” and reset her own story and timeline, and that of the sequels, though I’d really doubt that.
The ending of Rise of Skywalker is those buried lightsabers don’t just unbury themselves. Maybe they can do a NexTrilogy that has good writing. Return of Skywalker is probably whats needed.
Well Daisy is talking about & reflecting Star Wars again these daays
RIP Star Wars
You died when Disney purchased it
> The Star Wars Galaxy is in a weird time right now. Andor, which was widely agreed to be one of the best things to come out of Disney Lucasfilm, came and went with very little fanfare.
I heard Andor was good but at this point it doesn’t matter. I don’t trust Disney anymore. Releasing something like Strange World is a direct statement they don’t want me as a customer, so why would I watch Mandalorian? I look at all their brands holistically; until they correct course across all product lines I’m (sadly) done with them.
The only Disney movie product I took my family to last year was Avatar 2, mainly because I believed it was produced before Disney could infect it. Disney+ has been cancelled. I took my youngest child on one final trip to Disneyland so she could experience it before adolescence, knowing in my heart I was saying goodbye. Our last annual cruise with them was in 2021, but we knew then (with The Eternals) that the writing was on the wall. Our most recent all-family vacations centered around Universal and Cedar Fair properties instead, and hey, I hear Dollywood is nice.
It takes time to break up with things like Star Wars, Marvel, the theme parks, the cruise ships. These things were part of our family vacations and entertainment forever. But somehow Disney has twisted into a sick demented version of what it once was, and letting it go is like saying goodbye to a friend who has turned into an addict.