Star Wars Celebration Confirms Daisy Ridley To Return As Rey in New Star Wars Film

Picking up where The Last Skywalker left off this new film planned in the Star Wars universe will re-vist Rey (Daisy Ridley) as she begins to establish a new Jedi order.

London, England hosted Star Wars Celebration 2023. This past April 7-10 saw London brimming with Star Wars fans, as the convention hosted filmmakers discussing the future of the franchise’s films and TV series. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy took the Celebration Stage with featured guests to discuss what’s next and revealed a new “Star Wars” movie, one of three, starring a returning Daisy Ridley. The other two films are seperate timelines but canon to the upcoming Rey helmed starrer. (Will we get baby Yoda??) Anyhow, the other two films will explore the first ever Jedi 25,000 years before the world of Jedi as we know it. While the last film to be revealed will take place during the New Republic to tie-in the ever growing popularity and worlds of The Mandalorian, Boba Fett, and the upcoming Ashoka.

But it is official now, new Star Wars movies are coming to the big screen: Kennedy announced that three films are on the way, with the goal of widening the cinematic timeline from past to present to a “rich” future.

“It’s still very early days,” Kennedy cautioned the crowd as people grew excited. She then invited several of the films’ directors onto the stage. These include James Mangold, who will direct Dawn of the Jedi, about the earliest era of Star Wars.

Mangold, who is still writing the film, told USA TODAY he was inspired by the idea of a “biblical epic” that explains where the spirituality of the force originates. The film, which was not given a release or start date, will truly be about the “dawning of the religion that drives ‘Star Wars.'” 

“It gives you elbow room to create a world,” he said, adding he’s in the process of “designing” everything about this early world, from what characters wear to the ships they will travel in. “So many of the tricks of working within the tighter fabric of the  (existing) movies is the realities that have already been set, which can create compromises. For me, it’s about getting to a period of time that connects to the grand story” while standing on its own. 

Director Dave Filoni ( the animated Clone Wars, The Mandalorian) said  his film will explore the New Republic Era, including an epic war.

Pulling threads together between the TV and film worlds is a  “big tapestry that’s being woven. I love to think of stories in that context. You’re not bound at all. I hope you walk into that theater and whether you’ve seen a series or not, you enjoy the movie,” he said.