Disney appears to still be wandering in the wilderness when it comes to its plans for future Star Wars movies, with only The Mandalorian and Grogu, born out of a TV show, heading to theaters for sure.
New reporting seems to focus on Rey as the potential savior of the Star Wars movie universe which is being forced to lean less heavily into nostalgia with so much of the Skywalker area, and time periods immediately adjacent to it, being mined to death. Here’s THR on the fight for Rey as the next centerpiece of the movie universe:
“Perhaps that is why Lucasfilm was receptive to Kinberg’s multi-story pitch. Anything to move Rey forward. But it does engender rumors in the Star Wars underground of filmmakers jostling for characters.”
“While insiders dispute the notion that there is a battle for Rey, there definitely is internal deliberation within Lucasfilm as to what do with the heir to Skywalker next. “She is the most valuable cinematic asset, in some ways maybe the only one, Star Wars has right now,” one source close to the franchise tells THR.”
The reason, of course, that everything now seems to be relying on Rey is because during the first five movies of the Disney era, they…killed almost everyone else off. The big three, Han, Luke and Leia are gone. Ben Solo also died in those films. Vader is dead. Palpatine is dead (again). Solo was about young Han. Rogue One was a movie that killed literally its entire cast, including the lead of its current best show, Andor.
That leaves the central “new” trio of Poe, Finn and Rey, which makes things…complicated, as none of them are anywhere close to the level of iconic as the OG characters. Oscar Isaac previously said that he was done with Star Wars, but changed his tune the last few years. John Boyega famously was irritated with Finn’s treatment in the trilogy, but yes, he wants to return (hopefully as a Jedi, this time). The role of Rey and the pressure that came with it unfortunately caused actress Daisy Ridley to be so stressed out she formed stomach ulcers. But she too wants to return. It is of course hard for any actor to say no to leading a Star Wars film, after all.
Disney is in a really strange spot now, however. Even with all three of those characters, it enters a new, Skywalker-free era and not one that can pull from the Legends canon with descendant characters like Jaina and Jacen Solo. No Luke romance with Mara Jade. Even if Rey was made a Palpatine at the last minute, and now has taken the name Skywalker, it’s not the same thing.
Outside of new Rey movies, Disney seems to be struggling to do much of anything interesting outside of that. Dave Filoni is living out his live action Rebels/Clone Wars dreams on Disney Plus, mainly. The recent experiment to move to the Disney-created High Republic era, The Acolyte, failed, at least from a viewership perspective. The two most beloved entries of the Disney era, Andor and Rogue One, have not secured those showrunners/directors for any future projects, for some inexplicable reason.
All of this seems like it’s in flux. Yes, there are reports of this new Rey-led era which could be a trilogy or more, but we have seen a half dozen scrapped Disney Star Wars movies in as many years, so it’s hard to believe any of this comes to fruition until it actually does. And that won’t be easy.
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