A new Star Wars rumor has awakened, this time claiming that Disney’s upcoming Rey-centric film trilogy has already met its demise.
Supposedly set in the post-Sequel Trilogy, ‘New Jedi Order’ era of the franchise’s timeline, the standalone movie will follow Rey [Nobody/Palpatine/Skywalker, take you pick] as she sets out to instruct a new generation of Jedi in the ways of the Force.
First announced as in production at the 2023 Star Wars Celebration event, the project has received few updates since, with the only ones coming via a pair of interviews in which star Daisy Ridley’s noted that she has yet to see a full script.
That was, until January 16th, when World of Reel‘s Jordan Ruimy shared a supposed piece of news that got a lot of viewers’ hopes up – mine included.
“I’ve been told that Disney has delayed the film ‘indefinitely’, which is why they surprised everyone last week and decided to announce The Mandalorian and Grogu as the next Star Wars movie,” he reported. “They just don’t have confidence that New Jedi Order will be happening in the near future.”
“The problems seem to reside in creative differences between screenwriter Steven Knight and LucasFilm,” Ruimy added. “I’m told that a draft had originally been written for the film, but Lucasfilm gave him so many notes that he had to start from scratch.
Further, he asserted, “To make matters worse, there is the possibility that Knight might not be staying on-board the project. His frustrations have grown, so he’s put Star Wars on the backburner and is now focused on the screenplay for his Peaky Blinders movie, which is supposed to go into production in the fall.”
But then, right on time and just hours after the rumor had begun to spread like wildfire across social media, Gizmodo released their own report declaring that the Rey film was, contrary to Ruimy’s report, still on track.
Therein, the outlet’s German Lussier said that, according to a supposed insider source at Lucasfilm, “[Ruimy’s] report is inaccurate and Knight continues to write and be a part of the process. In fact, the company is waiting on his latest draft as you read this.”
Yet, for all the noise the internet has subsequently made over both reports, it should be noted that both lack any real, verifiable sources for their claims.
This is puzzling as while Disney Lucasfilm may not be the most organized shop in town, you can be certain they don’t just immediately shelve their announced films because a single screenwriter was temporarily putting them “on the backburner.”
Further, even if Knight was truly experiencing creative differences with Disney, history has shown that such issues are not necessarily a death knell for a given production.
For a prime example, look no further than the franchise’s own Solo – A Star Wars Story, which was simply reassigned from its original directorial duo of Phil Lord and Chris Miller to Ron Howard following their own respective disagreement with the company’s vision for the prequel film.
But conversely, history also shows that Disney has also been unafraid to outright abandon its fair share of previously-announced Star Wars projects.
From David Benioff & D.B. Weiss’ trilogy, to Rian Johnson’s trilogy, to Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron, to Guillermo del Toro’s The Rise & Fall Of Jabba The Hutt, to the Gina Carano-led Rangers Of The New Republic, to the countless other bits and pieces that never made it out of the Disney hype machine, there’s more than enough evidence to suggest that a canning of Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy’s upcoming film is not outside of the realm of possibility.
However, it should be noted that Gizmodo did have one actually true thing to say about the film’s development: “Can anyone say with 100% certainty that it’s coming out? Of course not. This is Star Wars and if the last 10 years have taught us anything, it’s that until cameras start rolling, not everything that’s announced ends up happening.”
This is the actual truth of the Rey movie – With so much unconfirmed information flying around, fans would do best to temper their expectations until they either see official set materials or receive direct company word of its cancellation.
Why Disney would pursue a continuation of the Sequel Trilogy rather than focus on the parts of attention of the Star Wars saga fans respond well to is beyond my understanding, but as of writing, that seems to be what’s happening.