Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy Says Upcoming Rey Film Will Question: “Does The Galaxy Need [The Jedi] Anymore? Do They Want Them Back?”
John F. Trent
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Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy recently provided more details on the company’s Rey film starring Daisy Ridley that they announced at Star Wars Celebration.
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: Kathleen Kennedy onstage during the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)
Kennedy appeared on Entertainment Weekly’s Dagobah Dispatch, where she first reiterated much of the talking points she shared about the film at Star Wars Celebration.
She said, “Well, as we move into the future space, which this story is about 15 years outside of Rise of Skywalker, obviously, we realize that post-war, post-First Order, rise of the new Jedi Order, we left Episode IX with Rey making a commitment to Luke Skywalker that she would rebuild the Jedi Order and so here we are. We are ready to do that.
“And it took a lot of discussion because obviously we’ve been developing stories in different spaces, and television has been a big focus of our attention right now. But there’s still so much interest in what happens after Rise of Skywalker. So we are excited to be doing that now,” she concluded.
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: (L-R) Daisy Ridley, Kathleen Kennedy and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy attend the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)
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Later in the podcast, Kennedy was asked about the announced James Mangold film that is expected to go back to the distant past and tell “the tale of the first Jedi to wield the Force and harness it as a liberating power in an era of chaos and oppression.”
She said, “We’ve been talking a lot about going well into the past and one of the things that’s really knitting this all together, obviously, are the Jedi. What happened with the Jedi overtime, much like history? How did the Jedi evolve? They were wiped out with Order 66 then they gradually have been coming back. The question that we’re going to ask with New Jedi Order and with Rey is: Does the galaxy need them anymore? Do they want them back?”
“So there’s a lot of food for though in what we’re doing whether it’s in the past, present, or future,” Kennedy continued.
Daisy Ridley as Rey, Oscar Isaac as Poe Dameron, and John Boyega as Finn in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Lucasfilm
Kennedy went on to confirm that the iconic Star Wars crawl would return for the Rey-centric movie saying, “The crawl’s coming back. The crawl’s coming back.”
And when pressed on whether it was just for the Rey film, she added, “No, crawl is for movies.”
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: Kathleen Kennedy onstage during the Andor studio panel at the Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)
Kennedy would also be asked how she and Lucasfilm determine which stories are adapted to television through Disney+ and which ones get the movie treatment.
She answered, “I think your question is one of the most interesting ones facing many of us who are doing high end premiere television because there is so many things we can do in streaming now where we do massive effects, we really increase the scale and size of these stories, and I certainly find myself personally looking at well, what is that distinction that movies something on to the big screen versus the smaller screen.”
“And it’s usually the intimacy of the character driven stories that you try to really push in the television space and then spectacle that you can preserve in the movie space,” she explained.
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 15: Kathleen Kennedy arrives at the special 3-episode launch event for Lucasfilm’s original series Andor at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on September 15, 2022. (Photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images for Disney)
In a press release, Lucasfilm detailed the Rey-centric “film will star Daisy Ridley reprising her beloved role as Rey and tells the story of rebuilding the New Jedi Order and the powers that rise to tear it down.”
Lucasfilm has not announced a release date and given Lucasfilm’s track record of announcing films and never bringing them to theaters there is certainly quite a bit of doubt on whether the film will actually get made.
Nevertheless, the film will reportedly be directed by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy.
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: (L-R) Daisy Ridley, Kathleen Kennedy and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy attend the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)
What do you make of Kennedy’s comments about this upcoming Rey film and how it will question whether the Jedi are needed?
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