There's been a lot of discussion surrounding Damon Lindelof's Star Wars movie this past week, especially after the filmmaker confirmed he was "asked to leave" the project.
While the version of the movie announced at Star Wars Celebration will be set 15 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, we recently found out that Lindelof's movie was set to revolve around an elderly Rey. Talking on John Rocha's podcast (via SFFGazette.com), insider Jeff Sneider shared a few more details about what might have been.
Confirming Lindelof was fired, he says the story would have taken place six decades after the Skywalker Saga's conclusion, with Rey training a male and female Jedi.
They would have been played by two Black leads, though Sneider states the male actor who has since walked away from the project was not Aquaman and Watchmen star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
The biggest bombshell, however, is that rather than bringing Daisy Ridley back and using VFX to make her appear older (which, let's face it, could have looked awful), Lindelof's ideal casting pick would have been Shazam! Fury of the Gods star Helen Mirren. She was never in talks for the role but was very much the prototype for what the writer wanted.
Sneider wraps up by saying the script simply wasn't very good and casts doubt on Knight's version having much in common with Lindelof's. It also sounds like Finn wouldn't have been part of that original version, though both he and Oscar Isaac's Poe Dameron may well return in this upcoming untitled project from filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
Lindelof clearly hoped to jump much further into this Galaxy's future, skipping the formation of the new Jedi Order and taking us to a point where Rey's life is nearing its end and she's in the midst of training two Jedi Knights who may have gone on to become the franchise's new leads.
That would have been one way to finally move on from the Skywalker Saga, but it's clear now that Lucasfilm had other ideas and doesn't want to gloss over the time Rey Skywalker spent trying to restore the place of Jedi as the Galaxy's protectors.
While a release date hasn't been confirmed, we expect the movie to be released in 2025.