There have been conflicting reports about the status of the untitled "New Jedi Order" Star Wars movie from director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy doing the rounds since late last year, but it seems Lucasfilm may have finally made the decision to put the project on the back-burner.
According to scooper Daniel Richtman, "The Rey movie is on hold once again, as both the Shawn Levy and James Mangold Star Wars films are moving forward first. The project is not canceled — just temporarily on hold."
This probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise, since a new writer was never officially assigned after Steven Knight parted ways with the project. This doesn't necessarily mean we won't be seeing Daisy Ridley's Rey back in the galaxy far, far away anytime soon, however.
A recent report from THR claimed that Rey "Skywalker" is key to the franchise's future. Not only is she expected to appear in the new trilogy that's in the works from writer and producer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Dark Phoenix), but several other projects (though which ones are not clear). “She is the most valuable cinematic asset, in some ways maybe the only one, Star Wars has right now,” one source tells the site.
THR's report also suggested that Kinberg's trilogy might have an impact on New Jedi Order.
"Rey, the scavenger-turned-Jedi played by Daisy Ridley in the last three episode movies, is key to the franchise’s next turn. That potentially puts Kinberg’s trilogy story development, as early in its conceptual stages as it may be, on a collision course with the Rey standalone movie that is actively in the works with director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy."
Ridley addressed her return as the powerful Force-wielder for the first time since Celebration during a 2023 interview with Collider.
"I was shitting myself before I went on stage, because no one knew I was going to that," she said of her surprise appearance at the Celebration panel. "No one knew I was going to Celebration, bar like Kathy [Kennedy] and there were a couple of people. I was so nervous. Oh my God. It was such a wonderful reception. I'm very excited. The story is really cool. I'm waiting to read a script because, obviously, I don't have any other updates. It's not what I expected, but I'm very excited."
"I know the storyline for one film," she added. That's not to say that that's all it is, but that's what I was told about. And I imagine it will be the next film, I think. I mean, again, I don't know, post strikes and everything, how quickly everything will start up again. But yes, so far, I know the story of one film and I think people will be very excited."