The Next Star Wars Movie Will Focus on Daisy Ridley's Rey as She Rebuilds the Jedi Order

Daisy Ridley is taking the lead in the next Star Wars cinematic event. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy announced the news at London's Star Wars Celebration on April 7, revealing that Ridley's character Rey will be the center of the franchise's first big-screen production since 2019's "The Rise of Skywalker." The new feature will follow Rey as she creates a new Jedi Order, per Variety. "Ms. Marvel"'s Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy will direct the project based on a script by "Peaky Blinders" writer Steven Knight, who joined after the original writers, Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson, exited the project earlier in 2023. A follow-up movie to "The Rise of Skywalker" has been in the works for a long time, though numerous previous projects have fizzled. In December 2020, "Wonder Woman"'s Patty Jenkins was slated to helm a film called "Star Wars: Rogue Squadron," set to open in December 2023, but the project stagnated and Disney removed it from its slate in September 2022. Before that, in 2019, Marvel's Kevin Feige was set to direct a Star Wars film, but that project also never came to fruition. Related: "Star Wars: Skeleton Crew" Introduces Its Young Cast Members and Reveals More Plot Details Ridley's movie, which does not yet have a title, is one of three Star Wars films currently in the works. Aside from Obaid-Chinoy's, "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" director James Mangold and "The Mandalorian"s Dave Filoni will lead future projects. Mangold's film will tell the story of the first Jedi in what he described at the London event as a "biblical epic." Filoni's will follow the conflict between the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic, and Obaid-Chinoy's will focus on Ridley's Jedi Master Rey Skywalker as she reshapes the Jedi Order.