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Star Wars: New Jedi Order, Rey’s new Star Wars movie, has a few challenges to overcome. Daisy Ridley will reprise her role as Rey in Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Star Wars film, which is expected to premiere in 2025. New Jedi Order will take place 15 years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and will see Rey forming a new Jedi Order. The announcement of New Jedi Order at Star Wars Celebration 2023 was surprising, given that The Rise of Skywalker was promoted as the end of the Skywalker saga.
Rey’s new Star Wars movie means that Star Wars will get to revisit the sequel trilogy’s hero far quicker than it revisited Luke or Anakin. Audiences will not have to wait decades to see Rey and other Star Wars sequel trilogy characters back in action. However, that short window between The Rise of Skywalker and New Jedi Order also creates a few challenges. Here are five issues New Jedi Order might encounter.
5 The Rise Of Skywalker’s Problems Make Rey’s Movie Tricky
New Jedi Order is not Star Wars 10, but the film is a sequel to The Rise of Skywalker nonetheless. Though The Rise of Skywalker was far from being a financial disappointment, the movie was the lowest-grossing entry in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The Rise of Skywalker highlighted some of the Star Wars sequels’ biggest problems, especially the lack of an overarching plan for the trilogy. Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s story had been very divisive, but The Rise of Skywalker struggled as a movie. With confusing pacing and some significant retcons, Star Wars 9 was not a solid conclusion for the Skywalker saga.
The Star Wars sequels did not end on a high note. Therefore, having the next Star Wars movie directly continue the events of The Rise of Skywalker is risky. More specifically, some of the decisions made in The Rise of Skywalker can make a new Rey Star Wars story sound less exciting than it should be. For example, the Rey Palpatine twist undid a lot of what The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi had done for the character. Likewise, the death of every single Skywalker, including Ben Solo, can play against the next Star Wars movie. The Rise of Skywalker closed many doors, making New Jedi Order’s job harder.
4 The Sequel Trilogy’s Divisive Reception Is Still Recent
The Rise of Skywalker was marketed as the end of the Skywalker saga. As such, as divisive as the Star Wars sequels had been, the trilogy had at least brought closure to several characters and storylines. Similarly, Palpatine’s return may have been underwhelming, but at least the next Star Wars films would have a clean slate to reimagine the Star Wars galaxy. Now, with New Jedi Order picking up Rey’s story so close to the events of The Rise of Skywalker, the sequel trilogy’s criticism may resurface. As a comparison, it took more than a decade for Star Wars to revisit the prequels in a large capacity.
Apart from the animated series, Disney’s Lucasfilm had mostly ignored the prequels until very recently. Compared to how the prequel trilogy was received upon its release, Episodes I, III,and III are currently seen in a much better light. The prequel trilogy had time to “age well,” especially because those films became an entire generation’s first Star Wars. Something similar could happen with the Star Wars sequels, which introduced Star Wars to a new generation. However, only six years separate the premier The Rise of Skywalker and the expected New Jedi Order release date. Star Wars should revisit the sequel trilogy, but it may be too soon for it.
3 Star Wars: New Jedi Order Movie Risks Another Rey Retcon
The mystery about Rey’s lineage set the tone for the sequel trilogy. However, The Rise of Skywalker’s Rey Palpatine storyline felt like a massive retcon instead of a shocking, interesting plot twist. The Force Awakens introduced many mystery boxes, including who Rey’s parents were. The Last Jedi seemly solved that mystery and revealed that Rey was “no one.” One of The Last Jedi’s themes was how anyone could be a hero, no matter if they were part of the mighty Skywalker lineage or not. Luke Skywalker had failed, and Rey could be a new beginning. The Rise of Skywalker went back on that with the Rey Palpatine twist.
Rey’s final scene in The Rise of Skywalker can be considered a second lineage retcon. In addition to being a Palpatine, Rey was now also a Skywalker. Rey taking the Skywalker name after training with Leia and Luke was an interesting concept, but the execution was flawed. By revisiting Rey’s story shortly after the events of The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars risks yet another Rey retcon. It is unlikely that Star Wars goes back on Rey being a Palpatine. However, if Rey’s new Star Wars movie chooses to ignore the Palpatine twist, it will feel like another sequel trilogy retcon.
2 Star Wars Has Never Continued A Trilogy So Quickly
A new Rey Star Wars story is exciting, yet Star Wars never once revisited a trilogy so quickly. For example, it took 32 years for Return of the Jedi to receive a sequel, The Force Awakens. Likewise, Obi-Wan Kenobi, the closest thing to a live-action Revenge of the Sith sequel, only happened 17 years after Episode III. The first two Star Wars trilogies were left as nothing but trilogies, and now the Star Wars sequels era is breaking that trend. Despite not being Episode X, New Jedi Order can be considered a new entry in the Star Wars sequels.
As the first Star Wars movie in ten years, The Force Awakens was a pop culture phenomenon. Star Wars 7 was also the direct sequel to
Return of the Jedi, meaning that it was 32 years in the making. That level of anticipation leading up to Star Wars’ return is one of the reasons why The Force Awakens’ box office was so impressive. Previously, Star Wars:Episode I – The Phantom Menace, the first theatrical Star Wars film since 1983, had experienced a similar scenario. Rey’s Star Wars movie will not get to replicate this phenomenon, as it will release relatively close to The Rise of Skywalker.
1 Rey’s Star Wars Movie Could Feel Like “Star Wars 10”
After so many years without solid updates on the next Star Wars movie, it seemed like Lucasfilm was taking its time before moving from the Skywalker saga once and for all. The Rise of Skywalker was promoted as the conclusion of all three trilogies, after all. After the Star Wars sequels, Star Wars no longer had the necessity to revisit Luke Skywalker or Darth Vader. Therefore, Palpatine’s death in The Rise of Skywalker was the perfect setup for new, non-Skywaker-related Star Wars stories. However, New Jedi Order risks feeling more like Star Wars 10 than something truly new.
If Rey is returning, then several other Star Wars sequel trilogy characters should be expected to return. Rey putting together a new Jedi Order is the perfect opportunity to make Finn a Jedi, for example. Names like Grogu and Jacen Syndulla could also work as part of Rey’s new Jedi Order. On one hand, revisiting established Star Wars characters can be good for the next Star Wars film. On the other hand, Star Wars:New Jedi Order means that Star Wars is not really moving from the Skywalker saga. Rey herself is a Skywalker.
Fortunately, projects like Star Wars:The Acolyte and Star Wars:Dawn of the Jedi can tackle unexplored eras. Rey’s new Star Wars movie can be the big tent-pole release that will bring the saga back to the silver screen, building up from already established characters. Despite the listed challenges, Rey’s new Star Wars film is one of the franchise’s most exciting projects in years. An immediate sequel to a Star Wars trilogy is uncharted territory for the saga, making Star Wars:New Jedi Order unpredictable and quite promising
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