Daisy Ridley to return as Rey in new Star Wars film

Daisy Ridley will be reprising the role of Rey in the first Star Wars film since J.J. Abrams's The Rise of the Skywalker.

Fans of the beloved sci-fi franchise rejoiced after Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy shared the news at Star Wars Celebration, a fan convention held in London today (7 April).

It was announced that Ridley will return as Rey after first playing the character in 2015's The Force Awakens, with Abrams behind the camera, and Rian Johnson's polarising The Last Jedi, released in 2017.

Abram's The Rise of the Skywalker, released in 2019, saw scavenger Rey be revealed to be none other than evil Emperor Palpatine's granddaughter.

The shocking truth leads to a highly-anticipated, final face-off, in which Rey teams up with Adam Driver's baddie Kylo Ren.

After killing the Emperor using Luke and Leia's lightsabers, Rey dies but is brought back to life by Kylo, who uses the force and then infamously kisses her before exhaling his last breath.

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While Driver is unlikely to return to the Star Wars universe for the time being, Ridley has been confirmed to star in the follow-up to Episode IX.

Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is will to direct from a script by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight. The latter replaced Watchmen's Damon Lindelof and Counterpart's Justin Britt-Gibson, originally poised to pen the film.

Not much else is known about the movie, but it seems that Rey has fully embraced her Jedi nature and is now in charge of creating a new Jedi Order.

The first post-Rise of the Skywalker movie, with the working title of Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, was originally due to be directed by Wonder Woman's Patty Jenkins. It was set to open in December 2023, but the film was later pulled from Disney's schedule and was confirmed to have been shelved in March this year.

Another movie to be helmed by Marvel boss Kevin Feige suffered a similar fate, though it seems the Star Wars film universe is in good shape, nonetheless.

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Alongside the new title starring Ridley, Lucasfilm has currently four more movies in development, including two newly announced projects to be directed by Indiana Jones 5's James Mangold and The Mandalorian producer Dave Filoni respectively.

Meanwhile, Taika Waititi is said to helm and star in his own Star Wars movie and Shawn Levy is still expected to cross over to Lucasfilm after Deadpool 3, marking the Merc with a Mouth's official MCU debut.

What more could a Star Wars fan possibly ask for then? Perhaps having a woman, or more, behind the camera next time wouldn't hurt.