The Rey Movie Has Lost Its Writer (Again)

If you were hoping that, after all the recent drama in the wake of The Acolyte‘s sudden cancellation that Lucasfilm was quite done with assuring its audiences that it was indeed still capable of making and sticking to its plan to actually release Star Wars movies again, well… bad news. One of the most interesting projects in the studio’s long-nebulous attempts to bring the galaxy far, far away back to the silver screen has just been hit with another potential roadblock.

Variety reports that writer Steven Knight has parted ways Lucasfilm and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s planned Rey movie, the latest writer to depart the project after he replaced original screenwriters Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson in March 2023. At the time Knight signed on to pen the script, the nature of the project was unknown, until it was confirmed months later at Star Wars Celebration Europe that the movie would see Daisy Ridley return as Rey Skywalker, attempting to rebuild a new Jedi Order after the events of The Rise of Skywalker.

At the time the Rey film–one of three projects announced at Celebration in 2023, including a Dave-Filoni-helmed Mandalorian “team-up” film largely presumed to be current continuity’s riff on the famous Heir to the Empire novel trilogy by Timothy Zahn, and a James Mangold project set thousands of years in the past about the origins of the first Jedi–was widely assumed to be the studio’s first theatrical Star Wars release since 2019, after several failed attempts to bring Star Wars back to theaters while the franchise found itself a footing in TV through Disney+.

That is until Lucasfilm made the surprise announcement early this year that it was also developing The Mandalorian & Grogu, a theatrical continuation of the TV series, directed by Jon Favreau and quickly slotted in for a May 2026 release date. Throughout, the Rey movie has already faced multiple controversies, including rumors of its delayed production and attempts by right-wing cultural grifters to discredit Obaid-Chinoy in the ongoing culture war against “woke” media. Lucasfilm still has untitled Star Wars projects currently slated for release in Disney’s calendar in December 2026 and December 2027, but Variety reports that Knight’s exit from the project and the search for a new screenwriter could mean the Rey film now may not enter production until late 2025 at the earliest.

The update comes at a time of upheaval for Star Wars, as Lucasfilm attempts to steady the franchise from a series of setbacks over the last few years, including its delayed attempts to release new Star Wars movies (connected to the main Skywalker Saga or otherwise) and the franchise’s place in the aforementioned online culture war, exacerbated by the recent cancellation of The Acolyte after the series and its creatives were subject to multiple rounds of online discourse and controversies about its vision for the franchise. For now at least, only two things are really set in stone for Star Wars‘ future: the next live-action TV series, Skeleton Crew, is set to hit Disney+ this December, while The Mandalorian & Grogu remains locked in to that May 2026 release date, and even showed early footage at D23 this past summer. Anything beyond that, whether it’s TV series like the return of Andor and Ahsoka, or future films, remains up in the air.

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