MOVIE NEWS – Damon Lindelof’s Star Wars movie was supposed to reprise the role of Rey, but Lucasfilm didn’t want to part with Daisy Ridley…

According to a recent Star Wars rumour, Damon Lindelof’s film would have recast Rey. And in a surprising choice. With a flurry of Star Wars announcements in recent months, Lucasfilm has finally cemented its plans for the franchise. At the same time, it has admitted that specific projects, such as Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron and Kevin Feige’s mystery film, have been dropped. The strangest, however, is the departure of Damon Lindelof from what is presumed to be the sequel trilogy.

“I was in more than talks to join the Star Wars universe,” Lindelof recently observed, addressing rumours and reports for the first time.

“I joined the Star Wars universe and was asked to leave.”

On The Hot Mic podcast, industry insider Jeff Sneider addressed Lindelof’s script. Sneider said Lindelof’s script would have been set 60 years after Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker. In it, Rey would have finally decided to rebuild the Jedi Order. She trains two new Padawans – one male and one female. According to Sneider, both would have been people of colour. The time jump would have necessitated a new cast for Rey, and Lucasfilm was reportedly considering an actress like the great Dame Helen Mirren (who was never sought out).

Was Lucasfilm right to keep Daisy Ridley as Rey?

But the studio dropped Lindelof’s script and went for a very different approach. At the Star Wars Celebration 2023, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy revealed that Daisy Ridley will return as Rey. In a film set just 15 years after the Rise of Skywalker. This period in the Star Wars timeline is being dubbed ‘The New Jedi Order’. This means that Rey’s canonical version will re-form the Order much sooner than Lindelof had planned.

Some argue that this is for the best; the sequel trilogy clearly heralded the reformation of the Jedi, and a significant time jump would have been rather odd.

Ridley is a talented actor, even if the scriptwriters sadly let her down at the time of the sequels. She doesn’t deserve to be discarded like this. To make matters worse, the 60-year time jump would have introduced another problem. For John Boyega’s Finn would never have had the opportunity to learn to use the Force. This would have hurt the character arc. Finn’s potential was wasted in the sequels, and that would have been the ultimate insult. Lucasfilm presumably made the right decision. Hopefully, Boyega will return alongside Ridley in the next Star Wars film.

Source: The Hot Mic Podcast