The Rey movie has lost its writer (again).

If that’s what you were hoping for, next all the recent drama in the wake of The acolyte‘s sudden cancellation that Lucasfilm was completely done with assuring its audience that it was indeed still able to make and stick to its plan to actually release Star Wars movies again, well… bad news. One of the most interesting projects in the studio’s long-obscure attempts to bring the galaxy far, far away back to the big screen has just been hit with another potential roadblock.

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

At the time the Rey film–one of the three projects announced at Celebration in 2023, including a Dave-Filoni helmet Mandalorian “team-up” film largely believed to be the current continuity riff on the famous one Heir to the Empire new trilogy from Timothy Zahn, and a James Mangold project set thousands of years in the past about the origins of the first Jedi; this was widely believed to be the studio’s first theatrical film. Star Wars release since 2019, after several failed attempts to Star Wars back to the cinema, while the franchise gained a foothold on television via Disney+.

That is until Lucasfilm made the surprise announcement early this year that it was Also to develop The Mandalorian and Grogua theatrical continuation of the TV series, directed by Jon Favreau and quickly penciled in for a Release date May 2026. The Rey film has already had several controversies, including rumors about the film the delayed production And attempts by right-wing cultural con artists to discredit Obaid-Chinoy in the ongoing culture war against “woke” media. Lucasfilm still doesn’t have a title Star Wars projects currently scheduled for release on the Disney calendar in December 2026 and December 2027, but Variety reports that Knight’s departure from the project and the search for a new screenwriter could mean that the Rey film will only now will not go into production until the end of 2025 at the earliest.

The update comes at a time of unrest Star Warsas Lucasfilm tries to save the franchise from a series of setbacks in recent years, including delayed efforts to release new films Star Wars films (whether or not connected to the main Skywalker Saga) 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 subjected to multiple rounds of online discourse and controversies over her vision for the franchise. For now, at least, only two things are really set in stone Star Wars‘ future: the next live-action TV series, Skeleton crewhas been set coming to Disney+ in Decemberwhile The Mandalorian and Grogu remains tied to a May 2026 release date, and even showed early footage at D23 last summer. Anything beyond that, whether it’s TV series like the return of Andor And Ahsokaor future films, remains hanging in the air.

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