At Star Wars Celebration 2023, we were gifted the surprise announcement of Daisy Ridley’s return to Star Wars. Little is known of the new Rey movie, although the Internet has decided it’s called New Jedi Order despite there being no official title announcement. Picking up some years after the sequel trilogy, the furthest forward the canon timeline has been pushed, the film will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and, piecing together what little information we have, written by Damon Lindelof and Steven Knight. One of many Star Wars films in development, it’s the big screen project I’m most excited to see come into fruition, and I have five key hopes for Rey’s return.
1: It Happens
We’re at a point where official announcements from Lucasfilm mean nothing. I’ll believe the Rey movie is real when I’m sat in the cinema ready to watch it. Some of the announced Star Wars projects, films and Disney+ shows alike, won’t end up happening – that’s just what we’ve come to expect from this company. That Taika Waititi movie? No way in hell that’s happening. The James Mangold movie? I’d say about 50/50. Given the Rey movie was announced on stage, with a star, director, and a script in some form, I think there’s more chance it gets made than not. At least, I hope so. As a sequel trilogy fan, I want this story and character to continue. To push the franchise forward. I enjoyed The Acolyte, not everything it attempted worked for me but I appreciated the chances it took, and fear its disappointing cancellation will mean the franchise won’t take risks anymore. Just samey, cameo-driven Mandoverse stories. Please, get this Rey movie made.
2: A New Threat
The First Order are defeated. Hopefully this time it’s a more definitive victory than that over the Galactic Empire. One resurgent imperial force is enough, I don’t need the villains going forward to be another. I think the franchise has actually handled the reasons for the Empire lingering and rising again in a new form quite well but with the entire galaxy rising up in Rise of Skywalker, citizens rather than just insurrectionists, I don’t think they would have a foothold. If the film is set fifteen years later as it is rumoured to be then that’s enough time for any First Order remnants to be eliminated. Gone too are the Sith… again, but also, hopefully, ultimately now that Exogol has been cleansed. I hope the bad guys of the Rey film are a new faction, or even just a new individual. There doesn’t need to be a new galactic threat but something more personal to Rey. An antagonist to rival her plans to create a new Jedi order. A villain tailored to her specifically.
3: Please, No Tatooine
To misquote Finn, “why does everyone want to go back to Tatooine?” The dull outer-rim world that Luke so wanted to escape from has felt like the centre of the Star Wars galaxy for too long now. There are many iconic locations there, I admit that I very much enjoyed exploring Tatooine in Star Wars Outlaws, but I see no reason why Rey would need to go back there. Her coda in Rise of Skywalker was fine but that’s all we need: honouring the legacy of what came before, burying the dead where the story began so she can now truly move forward with her’s as a Skywalker herself. So let’s do that and move forward. I’m baffled at the people who claim Rey is going to stay on Tatooine and maybe begin a Jedi academy there. I’ve never seen it as anything but a brief stop on her journey to new frontiers.
4: A Different Jedi Order
While I don’t want to see Tatooine as the new home of the Jedi Order, I do like the idea of it being a familiar location. Or rather, a familiar ship: the Millennium Falcon. Rey is the ship’s owner and why not use it as a new base for the Jedi? It would have to be a small group but that’s what I’m hoping for. She’s not going to jump into creating an entire school. I’d like to see between two and five pupils following Rey’s teachings. And using the Falcon would be representative of how her Jedi Order is different. The mistakes of the past, namely the Jedi of the prequels and the latter years of The High Republic, sitting almost literally in an ivory tower, need to be learned from. I love the idea of a continually moving home for the Jedi from which they can explore the galaxy and help ordinary folk much more easily. Rey might not have renamed the Jedi Order, as was the rumour going into episode nine, which I’m glad about, but I really want the film to explore how the Jedi under her tutelage (an almighty pressure on her as an individual) are different from what we’ve seen before.
5: It’s Not Episode X
I don’t want the Rey movie to be called Episode X, and neither do I want it to feel like a tenth instalment in the Skywalker saga. The saga is over, the epic narrative told, and while this new film is a sequel to it it should feel different. I want Rey’s film to feel smaller and more intimate. The galaxy doesn’t need to be at stake; it’s the story of a woman bearing the weight of an incredible task, continuing the Jedi, and triumphing. In terms of scale, something similar to the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series, but hopefully a lot better looking. It should look and feel like a movie, Star Wars on the big screen again, matching the visual beauty of the sequels, but it doesn’t need a huge blockbuster budget. The film isn’t going to be a financial juggernaut so needs to be costed moderately to be successful.
Nor do I want the film to spend time seemingly righting the wrongs of the sequel trilogy. Those films exist as they are, with their strengths and weaknesses, and we need to accept them and move the story forward. There’s a temptation to revisit other sequel trilogy characters and while I’m sure some will appear I don’t need a roll call. Finn could also be a Jedi in training but, honestly, I don’t need him to be. It’s Rey’s movie and just because Episode IX mishandled that character doesn’t mean the new film needs to go out of its way to correct past mistakes. I didn’t like how Rise of Skywalker treated Rose but no superfluous subplot in a New Jedi Order film is going to fix that. I hope the movie can stay focused as a character study.
Consider this article some kind of positive manifestation ritual, willing this movie into existence. As a modern Star Wars story at Lucasfilm it needs all the help it can get. The sequel era of the franchise has been pretty bereft of stories while the other eras are becoming increasingly cluttered. I’d settle for another animated show but a new Rey film is a dream come true, if indeed it actually does.
