New Rey movie screenwriter reveals what his vision might have in common with Star Wars creator George Lucas

The Rise of Skywalker — (Image credit: Lucasfilm)

A new Star Wars movie centered around Rey is in the works, though it's been in development for some time.

The latest update is George Nolfi boarding the movie as a new writer, replacing Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, who departed the project last year.

Article continues below

"If you think about George Lucas, the six movies that he did, and the universe that he created, it's actually very steeped in broad notions of politics," Nolfi explained. "It's not talking about today, per se, but there's the Empire's Nazism slash Roman Empire. The democracy of the Roman Empire collapsing and becoming an empire and the perennial story of human beings organising themselves and against chaos, and then the tools that help human societies tamp down on chaos becomes oppression.

"So that is really very core to what I think George Lucas was trying to talk about. And one of the wonderful things about science fiction and Star Wars – which is more almost science fantasy or space opera – is that you can raise the deepest issues without it feeling like a philosophy class, or a political science class, or something I read in the newspaper today…

"It can be about real things, deep things," he concluded. It's true that Lucas's six Star Wars movies are very political – who can forget The Phantom Menace beginning with a trade dispute – so it wouldn't be a departure for the franchise at all if Nolfi's script delves into these topics.

TOPICS

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film section. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.