Draft:Untitled Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy Star Wars film

An upcoming American space opera film is being directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy from a screenplay by Steven Knight. Produced by Lucasfilm and set to be distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, the film will be part of the Star Wars franchise. It stars Daisy Ridley as Rey. The film is set 15 years after the events of the film Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) and follows Rey as she rebuilds the Jedi Order.

After several attempts to develop a new Star Wars film following the release of The Rise of Skywalker, Lucasfilm hired Damon Lindelof to develop this film by March 2022. After working on the story with a writers' room that July, Lindelof began writing the script with Justin Britt-Gibson. Obaid-Chinoy was hired by October. Lindelof and Britt-Gibson left the project in February 2023 and were replaced by Knight. Details on the film, including Ridley's return from the Star Wars sequel trilogy, were announced at Star Wars Celebration London in April. Filming was scheduled to begin in April 2024 at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England, but was delayed by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.

Premise
The film is set 15 years after the fall of the First Order during the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), and follows Rey as she rebuilds the Jedi Order.

Cast

 * Daisy Ridley as Rey: A Jedi who is rebuilding the Jedi Order. Ridley said Rey's approach to training would be different from that of her mentor, Luke Skywalker.

Development
Writer and Star Wars fan Damon Lindelof said in May 2013 that he would work on the franchise if asked, but he was concerned about potential backlash to his involvement after receiving negative online comments the year before about rumors that he was working on the film Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). He reiterated this in March 2020, saying he would like to work on the franchise "a decade from now when I would no longer be blamed for ruining it". Following the financial failure of the spin-off film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) and the release of the last film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), Disney and Lucasfilm reconsidered their film output and began prioritizing series for the streaming service Disney+ instead. Lucasfilm did begin work on several potential new Star Wars films, but were taking their time to get them right.

Lindelof was reported to be developing a new Star Wars film in March 2022. Following Star Wars Celebration Anaheim that May, a writers' room was put together for the project featuring Lindelof; Patrick Somerville, who worked on Lindelof's series The Leftovers; Rayna McClendon, a consulting producer on the Star Wars series Obi-Wan Kenobi; up-and-coming writer Justin Britt-Gibson; and several other writers including Andy Greenwald. The room met for two weeks in July and may have been joined by Dave Filoni, an executive producer on multiple Star Wars television series. After the film's story was outlined by the writers' room, Lindelof and Britt-Gibson began writing the screenplay together. By October, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy was hired to direct the film. Lucasfilm and Lindelof hired a director, despite the project still being in the writing stage, so she could help align the script with her vision for the film. It was expected to be set after The Rise of Skywalker and had the potential to include characters from the sequel trilogy, but it would not be a continuation of the main "Skywalker Saga" film series. It was also being developed as a standalone film, but could be followed by sequels if it was successful. The project was seen to have the most momentum out of all the Star Wars films that Lucasfilm was developing at that time.

At the Sundance Film Festival in January 2023, Daisy Ridley was asked if she would be reprising her role as Rey from the sequel trilogy in the new film. She said that she had not heard anything from Lucasfilm, but was open to returning due to her positive experience making the previous films. Ridley had breakfast with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy after the festival and was surprised to be offered a role in the film. She agreed to return after hearing the planned story. In March, Variety reported on the state of the in-development Star Wars films. Though some were no longer expected to happen, Lucasfilm was said to be committed to making Obaid-Chinoy's film. Lindelof stated later in the month that he found working on the film to be very difficult due to his love for the franchise, saying "it's possible that sometimes when you hold something in such high reverence and esteem, you start to get in the kitchen and you just go, 'Maybe I shouldn't be cooking. Maybe I should just be eating.'" It was soon revealed that he and Britt-Gibson left the project after turning in a draft of the screenplay in mid-February, and Lindelof later said he had been asked to leave. Steven Knight was hired to write a new draft by the end of March. At Star Wars Celebration London the next month, Lucasfilm announced that Ridley would star as Rey in the film, which would be set 15 years after the events of The Rise of Skywalker and focus on the rebuilding of the Jedi Order. The announcement was planned during a last-minute call between Kennedy and Ridley.

Following the Celebration announcement, Kennedy said it was unlikely that Mark Hamill would be reprising his role as Luke Skywalker from the previous films in flashbacks or as a Force ghost, but she said the character's legacy would be an important part of Rey's journey. In November 2023, Ridley said she had not yet read a script for the film, and Filoni revealed that he was now chief creative officer at Lucasfilm and would be directly involved in the planning of future films and series. By the end of the year, Adam Driver said he would not be reprising his role as Ben Solo / Kylo Ren from the sequel trilogy. In January 2024, Obaid-Chinoy—who is the first woman and person of color to direct a Star Wars film—said it was "about time that we had a woman come forward to shape a story" in the franchise. Some online commentators suggested that she was bringing an anti-men agenda to the franchise. This was supported by comments she made in 2015, in relation to her documentary work, about wanting to make men feel uncomfortable, which the commentors took out of context. Subsequently, rumors began circulating that Obaid-Chinoy had been fired from the film, that Knight had exited over creative differences, and that the film had been delayed indefinitely. The latter was exacerbated when Lucasfilm announced that a different film, The Mandalorian & Grogu—a continuation of the Disney+ series The Mandalorian—would be released in 2026 as the first new Star Wars film since The Rise of Skywalker. In response, Gizmodo reported that the Rey-focused film had not been indefinitely delayed and Knight was working on the latest draft at that time. Ridley soon confirmed that Obaid-Chinoy was still attached to the project, and expressed excitement to be working with the director because of her ideas for the film and her past documentary work, not just because Obaid-Chinoy was a woman. Also in January, Ridley was reported to be earning $12.5 million for the film.

In March 2024, Ridley said the production had planned for filming to start later that year but she was unsure if that was still the case or if it had been pushed to early 2025 following delays caused by the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike; the film had previously been expected to begin filming that April at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, England. She expected to read a script for the film "imminently" and was hopeful that it could be released in 2026. Ridley was unable to confirm whether the film would be titled New Jedi Order, as had been rumored, but did say that it was unlikely that Rey would have any children of her own in the film.