A new rumor details that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey film starring Daisy Ridley has been indefinitely delayed due to creative differences between Lucasfilm and screenwriter Steven Knight.
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: Daisy Ridley 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/Getty Images for Disney)
This new rumor comes from World of Reel’s Jordan Ruimy.
He reports, “I’ve been told that Disney has delayed the film ‘indefinitely’, which is why they surprised everyone last week and decided to announce The Mandalorian & Grogu as the next Star Wars movie.”
Ruimy adds, “They just don’t have confidence that New Jedi Order will be happening in the near future.”
Daisy Ridley as Rey in The Last Jedi (2017), Lucasfilm
As for why, he shared, “The problems seems to reside in creative differences between screenwriter Steven Knight and LucasFilm. I’m told that a draft had originally been written for the film, but LucasFilm gave him so many notes that he had to start from scratch.”
Given this, Ruimy is hearing Knight might exit the project explaining, “His frustrations have grown, he’s put Star Wars on the backburner and is now focused on the screenplay for his Peaky Blinders movie, which is supposed to go into production in the fall.
Daisy Ridley as Rey and Carrie Fisher as General Leia Organa in The Last Jedi (2017), Lucasfilm
The film has already been plagued with development issues even before it was announced at Star Wars Celebration. Damon Lindelof was reportedly working on it as far back as March 2022 with Richard Rushfield writing at The Ankler, “Word around Buena Vista St. is that Damon Lindelof, the Emmy-winning creator of Watchmen, Lost and The Leftovers, is working on a Star Wars movie for Lucasfilm.”
Lindelof would detail to Slashfilm in March 2023 that he was no longer working on the project, “I will just say, that for reasons that I can’t get into on this Sunday morning, on this day, the degree of difficulty is extremely, extremely, extremely high. If it can’t be great, it shouldn’t exist.”
He continued, “That’s all I’ll say, because I have the same association with it as you do, which is, it’s the first movie I saw sitting in my dad’s lap, four years old, May of ’77. I think it’s possible that sometimes when you hold something in such high reverence and esteem, you start to get in the kitchen and you just go, ‘Maybe I shouldn’t be cooking. Maybe I should just be eating.’ We’ll just leave it at that point.”
Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Lucasfilm
At the end of April, Lindelof told Esquire, “I was in more than talks to join the Star Wars universe. I joined the Star Wars universe. I was asked to leave the Star Wars universe. So will I get back in line outside the club and ty to get back in again? Of course.”
He added, “This movie was the Alpha and the Omega. It was the first movie I saw in a movie theater. I love all the storytelling in that world. And if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Or again, again, try as Yoda would say.”
It’s no surprise the film is facing development problems already. Daisy Ridley recently detailed that the entire thing was put 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.
Ridley’s comments appear to confirm how the movie was put together as detailed by scooper WDW Pro back in February, where he shared that The Walt Disney Company was working on a film with Ridley’s Rey in an attempt to reinvigorate the Star Wars franchise.
He noted at the time, “I am told there was a decision point in the last few months concerning Star Wars. And that decision point came about because the brand is seen as damaged even internally at Disney.”
After revealing they would bring back Daisy Ridley for a Rey film, WDW Pro detailed, “This contact, this source tells me that the reason that they are going to potentially bring Rey back is to test it out. Put out a big merchandising push with a theatrical release to go along with it and find out: can Rey invigorate Star Wars with a number of other characters around her.”
Interestingly, more recently WDW Pro also alleged that the reason why Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was pushing identity politics while talking about her upcoming Star Wars film was to try and protect it from internal decisionmakers at Lucasfilm and The Walt Disney Company.
He shared, “It looks like according to this source that Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is being very public and positioning this as, ‘She is a woman of color, it’s time for her to be in charge.’ That she’s being so forthright in this kind of DEI language in order to protect the film from being cut even more drastically.”
“And what is being alleged is that The Walt Disney Company — although I cannot prove this independently — that The Walt Disney Company, many of the higher ups are extremely squeamish. And squeamish is the word that was sent my way in regards to the viability of this film. They’re quite nervous,” he added.
As for what the film is supposed to be about an official blog post claimed it will “feature Daisy RIdley back as Rey as she builds a new Jedi Order.”
A press release added, “Kennedy then revealed that “Star Wars” will head into the future, with a new feature 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.”
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)
Kennedy would provide more details to IGN at Star Wars Celebration in April 2023, “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.”
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 15: Kathleen Kennedy arrives at the special 3-episode launch event for Lucasfilm’s original series Andor at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on September 15, 2022. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)
The idea that a Rey film could save Star Wars and the fact it was announced in the first place shows that Lucasfilm truly has no clue what they are doing when it comes to Star Wars at least in the sense of trying to sell movie tickets.
Clearly, if they are trying to push feminism, then they’ve done that. This messaging has turned millions of people off from Star Wars.
This film getting delayed indefinitely because it means whatever Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm were trying to cook up with the Rey film, the feminist messaging it was sure to include won’t be broadcast to the thousands of people that would go to see it.
Daisy Ridley as Rey and Adam Driver as Kylo Ren in The Force Awakens (2015), Lucasfilm
What do you make of this latest rumor?
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