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Another week and another report from The Hot Mic regarding Star Wars. Earlier today Damon Lindelof confirmed rumours that he was asked to leave the Star Wars film he’d been working on for over year, following a couple months of rumours. We first heard about Lindelof’s departure last month from Jeff Snider for Above the Line and later the trades, but it was Jeff Sneider of The Hot Mic who reported that Lucasfilm were not very satisfied with the draft that Lindelof had submitted and were not pleased about supposed friction between Lindelof and the films director, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Ms. Marvel), and thus decided to part ways with Damon and hire Peaky Blinders creator, Steven Knight to write the next draft of the script.
Today, the reporter who first broke Lindelof was writing a Star Wars movie and who reported Lindelof had exited the Star Wars movie, Jeff Sneider, has now provided details on what Lindelof’s script included and what the vision of the movie was ahead of his exit and Lucasfilm making substantial changes. The reporter took to his weekly podcast, The Hot Mic, to reveal that Lindelof’s initial story would focus on an elderly Rey Skywalker, sixty years after the events of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, and that Lucasfilm and Lindelof were supposedly looking at veteran actress, Helen Mirren, as a prototype for the elderly Rey. Sneider said the following:
“From what I understand, it was sixty years after The Rise of Skywalker. Obviously this changed a ton – Lindelof’s was set sixty years down the line, but now we know that Daisy Ridley is coming back [as Rey] so it’s not going to be sixty years later, it’ll be like ten years later. What I heard was, when it was that original idea, the original actor that came attached – everybody thinks that was Yahya Abdul Mateen II…it wasn’t and I actually got that confirmed recently. It was supposed to be an older Rey training two Jedi, a man and a woman, both would’ve been people of colour. Now, they didn’t go out to this actress, but she was the comp, she was not offered, but she was on the casting list as ideally who we want, but it doesn’t mean the prototype person is the person, but for older Rey, they were thinking of Helen Mirren.“
As Sneider carried on the conversation with his co-host, John Rocha, he said that he believes Lucasfilm won’t carry a whole lot over from Lindelof’s draft and reiterated that from what he had heard, the script was not good and below Lucasfilm’s expectations despite liking Lindelof’s initial pitch. Jon Rocha chimed in and added that he’d heard from his own sources over a week and half ago that Lindelof’s version of the New Jedi Order film featured an elderly Rey too, which brought up a report from Rocha last week where he revealed that he’s heard that John Boyega is returning as Finn in the upcoming movie. Sneider said he had not heard that Finn would play a part in the new movie, with Sneider’s sources claiming that they hadn’t heard of Boyega’s involvement, but prefaced that due to big story changes it’s possible that now they’re looking to get Boyega involved, with Rocha adding he’d heard Daisy Ridley coming back was a last minute thing ahead of Star Wars Celebration where the film was formally announced.
Lucasfilm officially announced the return of Daisy Ridley as Rey at Star Wars Celebration which took place earlier this month. The film which is being written by Steven Knight and directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy is set fifteen years after The Rise of Skywalker and see’s Rey attempting to form a New Jedi Order. The film does not have a release date, but Lucasfilm have an untitled Star Wars movie dated for December 19th, 2025.
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