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Star Wars: Daisy Ridley Isn’t Sure If She’ll Ever Play Rey Again
Daisy Ridley is uncertain if she'll ever play Rey again in future Star Wars projects. J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker wrapped things up for the Skywalker saga, which meant that the film was supposed to be the end of the main episodic films from the franchise, but this doesn't guarantee that Lucasfilm will never revisit it again moving forward. If that happens, however, Ridley isn't sure if she'll reprise his role again as the adopted Skywalker family member.
The Rise of Skywalker revealed that after the scavenger from Jakku was pronounced a nobody in Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi, she's, in fact, the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine. This understandably caused conflict within her having spent time with Luke (Mark Hamill) and Leia (Carrie Fisher). In the end, she decided to carve out her own path, walk away from her biological ties, and embrace her adopted family instead. While it sounded like a good ending for Rey, there's no doubt that there's still a lot of stories left in her — narratives that could be tackled later on.
When asked about the chances of her reprising Star Wars' Rey during her interview with Josh Gad on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, the actress wasn't able to give a straightforward answer. Ultimately, she said that while she's not totally closing the door on the idea, for her, The Rise of Skywalker effectively wrapped up her story.
Ridley's answer is perfectly understandable. At this point, the idea of The Rise of Skywalker was to cap off the Skywalker saga, meaning there aren't any more movies planned that are set on that premise. That said, Lucasfilm has had these kinds of pseudo-endings before with Return of the Jedi and Star Wars: Episode III- Revenge of the Sith. Eventually, they revisit the lore and build on what's been established previously. Gad talked about a ten-year time-frame regarding this possibility, which is a long time for fans to want to see more of the remaining key characters in the Star Wars universe. If anything, The Rise of Skywalker left the franchise in a place where there's a string of narrative opportunities to tackle.
It's odd to think that while Rey was the primary lead character in the sequel trilogy, it feels like there's still so much about her character that's unexplored. Perhaps it has something to do with the rushed resolution of her heritage mystery or the myriad of things that The Rise of Skywalker also needed to address. She didn't even get to properly wield her yellow-bladed lightsaber, although she was at least able to ignite it. Given this, if Lucasfilm wants to delve deeper into the character, they don't really need to revisit the Skywalker saga films; just give her a Star Wars Disney+ spin-off that only focuses on her and it would also work.
