Daisy Ridley on Her Upcoming Star Wars Movie: “I Feel More like I’m Owning It”

Star Wars has quite a list of projects in the works currently, from Mangold’s new Star Wars film that takes place thousands of years in the past to Waititi’s undisclosed project that he claimed “will piss off the fans.’ Somewhere in the middle of this is a new Rey movie.

A new Star Wars movie was announced at Star Wars Celebration 2023, focusing on Rey after ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’ Directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, the film follows Rey’s journey to rebuild the Jedi Order. Originally, Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson were set to write, but Steven Knight took over. The story is set 15 years after ‘Rise of Skywalker,’ exploring the post-war, post-First Order galaxy with the Jedi in disarray. Kathleen Kennedy shared that Rey is working to fulfill her promise to Luke and rebuild the Jedi Order based on the books. 

Ridley recently commented how the story so far feels promising and how she would like to see Boyega’s Finn return as a Jedi. In her most recent interview with ‘Empire,’ Ridley commented on her state of mind for the upcoming movie.

She explained how the experiences she had since ‘Rise of the Skywalker’ really helped shape her into the adult she is now, and she feels like she is “owning it” this time around:

I suppose I feel more like I’m owning it. I suppose I owned it the first time. Basically, I’m an adult now. I certainly did not feel like an adult at the time. Obviously, personally, things have changed, and professionally, I’ve had lots of other experiences, and so I definitely feel like it’s a different thing this time.

Ridley also explained that she wouldn’t return to the world if she wasn’t really excited about the prospect of her story continuing, but she does admit that she needed to think about her return.

There’s just a lot of joy with me and these films. Honestly, if I wasn’t excited, I wouldn’t have done it. It feels like a great thing to be a part of. I didn’t say yes right away, Kathy [Kennedy] was like, ‘Take as long as you need.’” Not that it took that long to say yes. “Why wouldn’t I [do it]? Yes, they have been divisive, but also they bring a lot of love and joy to a lot of people. It feels pretty amazing to be able to continue a character – like, can I even remember how to play her? It’s an interesting challenge as an actor to come back to something and try to figure out what’s changed for me and what’s changed for her.” All in day’s work for a Jedi

As a reminder ‘The Last Jedi’ and ‘The Rise of the Skywalker’ weren’t well-received movies when it comes to fans, especially some aspects of Ridley’s character Rey, who fans believe developed too quickly without any sort of logical explanation. Also, her lineage and expectations related to it were disappointing. Hopefully, the upcoming movie does something different to give justice to both Rey and Ridley. 

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