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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