Rumor: Shawn Levy Could Replace Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Daisy Ridley’s Rey Connected To Levy’s Upcoming Star Wars Film

A new rumor claims Daisy Ridley’s Rey is connected to Shawn Levy’s upcoming Star Wars film and that Levy could replace Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy if things sour with her.

This latest rumor comes from Jeff Sneider during The Hot Mic show.

READ: Rumor: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy And Daisy Ridley’s Rey Movie To Be Dumped On Disney+

Sneider says, “I’m told that [Shawn Levy’s] project does have an element — I don’t know if Rey is front and center in it — but Rey is a character in Shawn Levy’s movie.”

He elaborated, “Now, is it Daisy Ridley’s Rey or an older Rey? We heard those rumors back in the day maybe about Helen Mirren being positioned as an older Rey. So I don’t know in Shawn Levy’s movie if a) Rey is the lead character or b) if Rey is Daisy Ridley age or she could be someone in her 40s or 50s or someone who’s 70 or 80 like Helen Mirren, I don’t know.”

Sneider then said, “Yes, Sharmeen is still on board, but you know how Lucasfilm goes through directors quickly. This hire has been questioned. She doesn’t have a ton of experience. So if it does for whatever reason go sour and she either quits, or is fired, or whatever. For whatever reason she exits the project depending on scheduling  because again Shawn Levy is one of the busiest people in Hollywood … It’s my understanding that Shawn Levy could either slip in to direct that movie or Shawn Levy’s movie becomes the next movie or maybe Shawn Levy’s movie could be folded in to Sharmeen’s movie, I don’t know.”

“But he’s clearly interested in exploring Rey and that stuff and so if the Rey movie suddenly needs a director he may be the guy they turn to since they’re already in business with him,” Sneider added.

READ: Rumor: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey Film Delayed Indefinitely Due To Creative Differences With Screenwriter Steven Knight

It was reported Levy was working on a Star Wars film back in November 2022 with Deadline’s Mike Fleming Jr. and Justin Kroll sharing, “Deadline can reveal that Shawn Levy is in talks to come aboard to develop to direct a Star Wars film.”

Their report also detailed that Levy would begin to work in earnest on the Star Wars film following the conclusion of Deadpool 3.

Levy confirmed his involvement in a Star Wars film at the Toronto International Film Festival telling Collider, ““We were just starting the process of developing my movie, and the writer strike happened.”

“So we are in that holding pattern that so much of our industry is in,” he added.

He would later tell Variety, “When Kathy Kennedy brought me on board to make a Star Wars movie, her central mandate to me was ‘I want a Shawn Levy movie. I want a story and a tone that reflects you and your taste and what you bring to your movies — with a Star Wars story.’”

It does appear clear that The Walt Disney Company is invested in the character of Rey, but might be struggling to figure out how to tell a solid story with the central character of the much-maligned Disney Star Wars sequel trilogy.

The company walked Ridley out on to the main stage last April to announce her return as Rey in the upcoming Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy directed film that would take place 15 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker and would see Rey rebuild the Jedi Order.

READ: Rumor: Star Wars Director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Pushing Woke Messaging To Protect Rey Film’s Budget From Being Axed

There have also seeming been multiple scripts involving the character of Rey. Damon Lindelof, who was removed from Obaid-Chinoy’s film before April last year was allegedly working on an older Rey story.

Sneider shared that scoop on The Hot Mic saying, “It sounded like what he wanted to do from what I understand. It was 60 years after The Rise of Skywalker.”

He added, “Lindelof’s was supposedly set 60 years down the line, but now we know Daisy Ridley’s coming back. So it ain’t gonna be 60 years later. It’s going to be like seven years later or 10 years later.”

“What I’d heard when it was that original idea … I’d said that there was a black actor that came attached to the project with Damon. Everyone thinks that’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen. It wasn’t. It was not. I confirmed that recently. I don’t know who it was, but it was not Yahya,” he continued.

He went on to share more details about Lindelof’s script, “It was supposed to be an older Rey training two Jedi, a man and a woman, who I think both would have been of color.”

“Now, they didn’t go out to this actress. This was not offered, but she was the comp. She was the person when they put together casting lists, this is ideally who we want. It doesn’t necessarily mean that the prototype person is the person that [gets the] casting. But, basically, older Rey they were thinking of Helen Mirren,” he added.

READ: Daisy Ridley Provides New Details On Upcoming Rey Film, Reveals She Was Approached “Last Minute,” Says Film Will Take Franchise In “Different Direction”

Scooper WDW Pro shared details about two other potential scripts Lucasfilm has seen and contemplated regarding the project.

First, he detailed, “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. 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.”

However, he revealed that script was discarded, “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.”

As for the second script, he relayed, “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.”

What do you make of this latest rumor regarding Shawn Levy and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy?

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