Not long after J.J. Abrams revamped the Star Trek franchise with the 2009 reboot, the director took the Star Wars IP under his wing, kickstarting the sequel trilogy with 2015’s The Force Awakens. Starring Daisy Ridley at the forefront, The Force Awakens sticks closely to the original formula, and it certainly worked out for it, as throughout its box-office run, it made around $2.07 billion.
Interestingly, before resorting to the name of Rey Skywalker, which Ridley’s character adopts in order to honor her mentors and their family legacy, Abrams initially had a different name in mind for her.
J.J. Abrams Initially Had a Different Name Going for Daisy Ridley’s Last Jedi
It’s not uncommon for Star Wars characters to get multiple different names throughout the production process, with one example being Luke Skywalker, who was initially named Starkiller. Something similar was the case for Daisy Ridley‘s Last Jedi in the sequel trilogy, as originally J.J. Abrams intended to name the character Keera. But this name was put to the side in favor of Rey, which Ridley found “frickin’ awesome”. She told V Magazine (via Digital Spy):
“He [Abrams] told me it was meant to be Keera. And then, when we were already shooting in Abu Dhabi, he told me that he was thinking of going with Rey, which I thought was frickin’ awesome. But because I had to audition so much and everything, I never really had a conversation with JJ about it until I had read the script.”
Despite The Force Awakens‘ success, J.J. Abrams didn’t return for the sequels, which were then helmed by Rian Johnson, and the rest is history,
Daisy Ridley Is Set to Reprise the Role of Rey Skywalker in Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Star Wars project
Although The Rise of Skywalker‘s underwhelming reception put the IP on ice on the big screen, with Disney more focused on serving the streaming platform, Star Wars is finally set to return to theatres. With three new live-action Star Wars movies announced earlier this year, Daisy Ridley is set to reprise the role of Rey Skywalker in the Star Wars release led by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy. Reflecting on it, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy revealed that the movie will take place 15 years after the events of The Rise of SkyWalker. She said (via Variety),
“Well we’re 15 years out from ‘Rise of Skywalker,’ so we’re post-war, post-First Order, and the Jedi are in disarray,” Kennedy confirmed. “There’s a lot of discussion around, ‘Who are the Jedi? What are they doing? What’s the state of the galaxy?’ She’s attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order, based on the books, based on what she promised Luke, so that’s where we’re going.”
Apart from this, James Mangold and Dave Filoni are also set to direct their respective Star Wars movies, and in contrast to Obaid-Chinoy’s project, Mangold’s flick will take place 25,000 years before.
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is available to stream on Disney Plus.
