Kathleen Kennedy says Rey's Star Wars return has been the works for years

Daisy Ridley at Star Wars Celebration — (Image credit: Getty Images for Disney)

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has talked more about the return of Daisy Ridley's Rey to Star Wars, giving an update on the script. The film was a surprise announcement at this year's Star Wars Celebration.

"We've been working on that [film] for a few years and all of that feeds into our overall storytelling," Kennedy told Yahoo. "So we've just got to a point now where we've got a wonderful writer in Steven Knight, he's come on board and we're going to see a script probably in the next month and a half that we've been working on for quite a while. So we're getting close."

The film will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, with a script from Peaky Blinders' Steven Knight. Originally, Watchmen's Damon Lindelof and Justin Britt-Gibson were attached to write the film, but they ultimately exited the movie.

Plot details on the new Rey movie are thin on the ground right now, but we do know that it will center on Rey rebuilding the Jedi Order after The Rise of Skywalker. "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 has said of the film. "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."

This was far from the only reveal at Star Wars Celebration. Exclusive teasers were revealed for multiple upcoming projects and two more films were announced. For all the updates, see our roundup of everything announced at Star Wars Celebration 2023.