Daisy Ridley as Rey in The Force Awakens (2015), Lucasfilm
Steven Knight, who is supposed to be penning the script for the Rey movie starring Daisy Ridley and being directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, announced plans to launch a new studio in Los Angeles. This announcement has Star Wars fans speculating that the Rey film might be getting significantly delayed or completely scrapped altogether.
Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Lucasfilm
The BBC’s Ben Sidwell reported that Knight, the creator of Peaky Blinders “announced plans to open a studio in Los Angeles in the U.S.”
Knight told BBC, “I’m going to open a Digbeth Loc Studio here where people can go and look at what we’re doing. See pictures, decks and video of what’s happening, so people in LA can experience what we’re doing at Digbeth.”
Steven Knight, writer, Headshot
The announcement comes as Knight gears up to begin production on a Peaky Blinders movie to which he shared details of where they plan on filming, “We will be shooting at Digbeth Loc and we found some unbelievably good locations around Birmingham and West Midlands. We will be at the Black Country Living Museum again there will be locations around the country as well.”
Of note, he indicated this film is “the end of the first chapter of Peaky Blinders.” That means it is likely he has plans for more potentially more Peaky Blinders films after this one.
Cillian Murphy as Thomas Shelby in Peaky Blinders (2022), BBC
Following this announcement, there are rumblings that Knight opening a new studio and seemingly going all-in with Peaky Blinders will leave little room for the Rey movie.
Scooper and analyst WDW Pro speculated, “He is wrapped up in opening studios. That is no small endeavor. And our understanding was he was supposed to be working with the Rey movie, with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, with Lucasfilm and that would be an ongoing process. It seems to us, Lorn, and again, we could be wrong here, but seems to us that he is now going to be working on Peaky Blinders thing.
“And that makes us wonder if either the Rey movie has been delayed such that he can work on this for years and years and come back to it later or he’s been removed and nobody knows it yet, which would not portend well for the Rey movie either. So that’s where we are being led to believe that perhaps the Rey movie has experienced even more hiccups,” WDW Pro added.
Lorn Conner, WDW Pro’s guest, shared his own opinion, “I would say that I think is part of the reason why Lucasfilm and Disney over the last few years have tried to get away from people with clout in the industry to be their showrunners, their producers, and things like that. Because people that have that kind of influence can say, ‘No.’”
He continued, “So my guess is that rather than necessarily the production being halted eventually it wouldn’t surprise me if we got something that said, ‘Oh, there were creative differences,’ or ‘There were conflicts because he’s opening these studios. He’s just too busy to do it right now.’”
Daisy Ridley as Rey in The Force Awakens (2015), Lucasfilm
Lorn added, “I do think that it would be far too big of an embarrassment to make some kind of an announcement saying the Rey movie is cancelled or even delayed. But my suspicion is they will find lots of ways to creatively delay it because right now they’re holding their breath and they’re trying to figure out how do we get out of this hole that we’ve dug for ourselves.
I think The Acolyte has absolutely rattled them. I don’t think that you would be seeing what we’re seeing in the reactions in the fandom right now if they weren’t absolutely rattled by what happened with Acolyte. I think that it was a shock even to Lucasfilm and Disney,” he concluded.
(L-R): Torbin (Dean-Charles Chapman), Sol (Lee Jung-jae), Mother Aniseya (Jodie Turner-Smith) and Koril (Margarita Levieva) in Lucasfilm’s THE ACOLYTE, season one, exclusively on Disney+. ©2024 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Interestingly enough there was a rumor back in January from World of Reel’s Jordan Ruimy that the film had been delayed indefinitely.
He wrote, “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 & Grogu as the next Star Wars movie.”
“They just don’t have confidence that New Jedi Order will be happening in the near future,” he added.
Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Lucasfilm
As for the reason why, he shared, “The problems seems to reside in creative differences between screenwriter Steven Knight and LucasFilm. 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.”
Given this, Ruimy is hearing Knight might exit the project explaining, “His frustrations have grown, 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.”
Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Lucasfilm
During an appearance on The Hot Mich show, Jeff Sneider alleged that Shawn Levy might replace Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.
He said, “I’m told that [Shawn Levy’s] project does have an element — I don’t know if Rey is front and center in it — but Rey is a character in Shawn Levy’s movie.”
He elaborated, “Now, is it Daisy Ridley’s Rey or an older Rey? We heard those rumors back in the day maybe about Helen Mirren being positioned as an older Rey. So I don’t know in Shawn Levy’s movie if a) Rey is the lead character or b) if Rey is Daisy Ridley age or she could be someone in her 40s or 50s or someone who’s 70 or 80 like Helen Mirren, I don’t know.”
Sneider then said, “Yes, Sharmeen is still on board, but you know how Lucasfilm goes through directors quickly. This hire has been questioned. She doesn’t have a ton of experience. So if it does for whatever reason go sour and she either quits, or is fired, or whatever. For whatever reason she exits the project depending on scheduling because again Shawn Levy is one of the busiest people in Hollywood … It’s my understanding that Shawn Levy could either slip in to direct that movie or Shawn Levy’s movie becomes the next movie or maybe Shawn Levy’s movie could be folded in to Sharmeen’s movie, I don’t know.”
“But he’s clearly interested in exploring Rey and that stuff and so if the Rey movie suddenly needs a director he may be the guy they turn to since they’re already in business with him,” Sneider added.
NEW YORK, NEW YORK – JULY 22: (L-R) Shawn Levy and Kevin Feige attend the Deadpool & Wolverine World Premiere at the David H. Koch Theater on July 22, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Roy Rochlin/Getty Images for Disney)
One of the most recent official words on the film came from Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy in June while she was promoting her documentary on Diane von Furstenberg. She told Variety, “The story that interests me most is in Rey’s journey as a female Jedi. That’s how I can best bring my experiences to it.”
She went on detail who she hopes to attract to this movie, “The greatest thing about ‘Star Wars’ is that everyone has a personal connection to it. Everyone is passionate about it. And throughout the fandom, people have clear ideas about who should direct or what the stories should be about. I’m just drowning out those voices until I’m done.”
“As a storyteller, I’m focused on drawing new moviegoers into the cinema, and bringing a sense of nostalgia that will appeal to older fans of the series,” she added.
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)
Obaid-Chinoy also discussed the film with SiriusXM saying, “Sometimes you walk in the footsteps of people and giants who’ve created worlds. And in the case of Star Wars, George Lucas’s world and the filmmakers that have walked in his footsteps, have set this world that they want young viewers to sort of walk into and have an understanding of the world.”
She then detailed what is at the heart of the Star Wars world, “And at the heart of it, for me, is Rey Skywalker is Daisy Ridley and her story and taking her on an adventure to a Jedi Academy and sort of creating a world that is a natural dovetail to the story that we’ve seen her go through the last three episodes. And working with Lucasfilm and Kathleen Kennedy and the team over there in breathing life to characters that everyone loves and has fallen in love with and finding new characters that the next generation of moviegoers will fall in love with.”
From there, Obaid-Chinoy detailed who she’s been collaborating with to bring the film to life, “I’ve had conversations with JJ Abrams. I’ve had conversations with George Lucas and then, of course, Dave Filoni who’s a big uh part of the Star Wars uh Universe now, we speak very often. And Kathy Kennedy and Carrie Beck and Simon Emanuel.”
“I mean I think the team is is really taking time to make sure that we do justice to telling the story of Daisy. I think that that she stands for something. We’ve seen this wonderful journey she went on in episode 7, 8, and 9 and now it’s like on to the next adventure and how do we create a world and the adventure that we take her on,” she concluded.
LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: James Mangold, Dave Filoni, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy onstage during 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)
What do you make of this speculation that the Rey movie might be scrapped or that Steven Knight has moved on from the film?
