So What Happened to Daisy Ridley's Star Wars Movie and Will It Get Released After All?

At Star Wars Celebration 2023, Lucasfilm confirmed that Daisy Ridley will be returning as Rey in an upcoming movie.

But what has happened since then and how has the writer’s strike impacted production?

Has the Movie Been Delayed?

Two other movies were announced by the franchise at the same time, with Ridley’s expected to be the first to hit the big screen in December 2025. When the WGA strike was confirmed, that date was provisionally changed to May 2026.

In June this year, a potential production start date of April 2024 was touted. Since then, SAG-AFTRA members have also gone on strike. That wasn't exactly a surprise, and it may well have been factored into the proposed start date. What no one could predict at the time was how long the strikes would go on for.

Ultimately, we don’t really know whether the movie has been delayed, as there was no concrete information available even before the strikes. It seems likely that everything has been pushed back to some degree, but production companies will be keen to start pumping out content ASAP, and we might be pleasantly surprised at how quickly some movies are put together once the wheels start turning again.

More problems

As if strike action wasn’t enough of a disruption, just before the film was announced, writer Damon Lindelof stepped away. Whether he jumped or was pushed is not entirely clear, but he was replaced by Peaky Blinders writer Steven Knight.

Knight would have had very little time to put a new script together before the strike began. But with any luck, he’s straight back on it and will prioritise the Daisy Ridley movie now he’s back to work. Of course, we’re still awaiting the outcome of the SAG-AFTRA strike action before anything can be confirmed. But we certainly seem to be moving in the right direction, and May 2026 could still be a realistic target.

What’s the Movie About?

It’s a relief to finally be discussing the content of films rather than how long we might have to wait before production gets underway.

While Lindelof’s script was set 60 years after The Rise of Skywalker, we now know that the revised version of the story is set just 15 years later and that the Jedi are not faring too well. So far, it’s not been confirmed who the Jedi will be, or which other actors will be involved, but there has been talk of John Boyega appearing as Finn again.

Essentially, the crux of the movie seems to be following Rey’s attempts to rebuild the Order and make it a force to be reckoned with once more.

Most importantly, though, we can start to get excited about a new Star Wars movie as it looks like it might actually happen after all.