Daisy Ridley’s Flailing New ‘Star Wars’ Film Plagued With Drama, Report Says

Things aren’t going so well behind the scenes of Daisy Ridley’s return as Rey, a new report claims.

While the Star Wars franchise has thrived on Disney+ in recent years thanks to the likes of The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi, it’s been notably absent from the big screen for nearly five years. Since the Skywalker Saga ended with Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker (2019) – which went down infamously poorly with the majority of fans and critics – Lucasfilm has paused new cinematic efforts to instead focus on the silver screen.

Related: Disney ‘Star Wars’ Sequel Movie Replaces Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker

But that’s all about to change soon.

As was confirmed earlier this year, Pedro Pascal will reprise the role of Din Djarin (AKA The Mandalorian) in theaters with the upcoming The Mandalorian & Grogu (2026). Showrunner Jon Favreau is set to act as director and has written the film alongside Lucasfilm’s Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni. The Mandalorian & Grogu is reportedly set to start filming this summer, giving it plenty of time to meet this release date.

What isn’t quite as much of a sure thing, however, is the next Star Wars film. At last year’s Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy confirmed that Daisy Ridley will reprise her role of Rey from the Star Wars sequel trilogy in a new standalone film directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.

The film is said to follow Rey’s efforts to rebuild the Jedi Order 15 years after the end of Rise of Skywalker. The latter ended with Rey adopting the Skywalker name (why, we don’t know), having been brought back to life by villain-turned-anti-hero Kylo Ren/Ben Solo (Adam Driver). (Driver has emphatically insisted that he will not return to the Star Wars franchise).

Besides there’s a lot we still don’t know about this film – including when (or if) it will ever actually make it to theaters. In May, Ridley told Collider that there’s still no update on a script. “That has not changed yet,” Ridley said when asked whether she’d seen the story yet. However, she did add that this is “imminently about to change.”

If a recent report from World of Reel is true, we won’t count on that happening anytime soon. The site claims that the film’s writer, Steven Knight, has spent over a year “trying to crack the script” and that Lucasfilm still hasn’t received a final draft. In fact, Knight (who also wrote the upcoming Peaky Blinders movie) has apparently written four drafts of the film in total, each of which has received notes from Kathleen Kennedy about how to improve the story.

The film previously also had a script written by Damon Lindelof (who famously co-created Lost) and Justin Britt-Gibson. However, Lindelof has since claimed that he was “asked to leave” the project and was replaced by Knight.

Fast forward several years, however, and it sounds like Lucasfilm is still struggling to crack the project while Kennedy tries to steer things on the right course. As per World of Reel, we haven’t heard half of what’s gone down behind the scenes. “If only I could tell you what I’ve been hearing when it comes to the behind-the-scenes drama with this project,” the site claims. “I swore not to say anything, and it’s killing me to not write about it, but I’m fairly certain some of it will eventually come out.”

Related: George Lucas To Make ‘Star Wars’ Return, Report Says

Whatever this alleged “behind-the-scenes drama” may entail, we’d argue that this film was inevitably always going to spark some kind of chaos within the Star Wars community. Rey has long proven to be a divisive figure in the fandom, with some fans claiming that she is a Mary Sue whose advanced Force abilities just aren’t justified.

(A lot of these fans seem to forget that this is the same cinematic universe in which a nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker accidentally destroys a Federation droid control ship, but we’ll save that argument for another time).

There’s also been plenty of pushback from some Star Wars fans about its female leads in general. The latest project, The Acolyte – in which Amandla Stenberg portrays two lead characters, Mae and Osha – has received its fair share of hate for this very reason, leading to its showrunner, Lesyle Headlund, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “I stand by my empathy for Star Wars fans. But I want to be clear. Anyone who engages in bigotry, racism, or hate speech … I don’t consider a fan.”

Are you excited about Rey’s Star Wars return?