There have been conflicting reports about the status of the untitled Star Wars movie from director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy doing the rounds since late last year. We had heard that "New Jedi Order" was a priority at one point, but it seems Lucasfilm may have made the decision to put the project on the back-burner again.
According to scooper Daniel Richtman, "The Rey movie is on hold once again, as both the Shawn Levy and James Mangold Star Wars films are moving forward first. The project is not canceled — just temporarily on hold."
This probably shouldn't come as much of a surprise, since a new writer was never officially assigned after Steven Knight parted ways with the project. This doesn't necessarily mean we won't be seeing Daisy Ridley's Rey back in the galaxy far, far away anytime soon, however.
A recent report from THR claimed that Rey "Skywalker" is key to the franchise's future. Not only is she expected to appear in the new trilogy that's in the works from writer and producer Simon Kinberg (X-Men: Dark Phoenix), but several other projects (though which ones are not clear).
“She is the most valuable cinematic asset, in some ways maybe the only one, Star Wars has right now,” one source told the site.
THR's report also suggested that Kinberg's trilogy might end up having an impact on New Jedi Order's development.
"Rey, the scavenger-turned-Jedi played by Daisy Ridley in the last three episode movies, is key to the franchise’s next turn. That potentially puts Kinberg’s trilogy story development, as early in its conceptual stages as it may be, on a collision course with the Rey standalone movie that is actively in the works with director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy."
Ridley addressed her return as the powerful Force-wielder during an interview with Premiere last year, explaining why she ultimately decided to reprise the role.
"They simply asked if I wanted to do it, based on an idea, without the script being written yet. But if I hadn’t been convinced by the concept, the movie wouldn’t have been made. I took a day to think about it and I told myself that I had had great times making those films."
"This new adventure seemed fun to me, so why say no? My thoughts on the subject are quite simple: if I didn’t think the story was worth telling, I wouldn’t have come back."
Specific story details for the Rey movie were never disclosed, but we do know that it's set 15 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, and finds Rey training a new generation of Jedi.