The script for Daisy Ridley's new 'Star Wars' movie is 'still 6 weeks off' says Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy
In exclusive interview, Lucasfilm president explains why studio decided to continue Rey's journey in a sequel series.
This is the way... to reveal what's next for the Star Wars franchise on the big screen. Three new Star Wars movies were announced at Star Wars Celebration 2023 over the weekend, and one of them will bring back a beloved Jedi hero. Daisy Ridley will reprise her role as Rey in an all-new movie set 15 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker — an era that Lucasfilm has officially termed as the New Jedi Order. The film will be directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and sees Rey heading up a new Jedi Academy.
Little else was revealed at the panel, but speaking with Yahoo Entertainment exclusively following Saturday’s Ahsoka panel, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy shares that a script is imminent amid speculation over which of the three films might release first.
"We’ve been working on that [film] for a few years and all of that feeds in to our overall storytelling," says Kennedy. "We’ve just got to a point now where we’ve got a wonderful writer in Steven Knight. He’s come on board and we’re going to see a script probably in the next month and a half that we’ve been working on for quite a while. So we’re getting close." (Knight took over writing duties on the movie after Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof stepped away from the project.)
Asked what her reaction was when the idea of a Rey-centric sequel was first mentioned, Kennedy says that those "Eureka" moments rarely happen in the halls of Lucasfilm. "There’s never a time where something is just instantly suggested," she explains. "It’s such an evolution of conversations that we have all the time and we knew coming off of The Rise of Skywalker that we needed to take that further. We just didn’t know how far out. We didn’t know exactly what the story might be, but now we have a much better idea.”
Kennedy stopped short of revealing the planned release date for Ridley's film, but Star Wars fans can look forward to exploring the far, far away galaxy with a character whose journey in the sequel trilogy paved the way for what’s to come.
