Daisy Ridley at the Star Wars Celebration 2023

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Star Wars Celebration 2023 kicked off with the big news that Daisy Ridley will be returning to the role of Rey Skywalker for an upcoming film, having seemingly left the character behind after completing the Star Wars sequels with the release of The Rise of Skywalker in 2019. We have thoughts. Some of them are even about her dress for the occasion.

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The dress? Cute! Bold! Extremely flattering and photogenic! You can’t miss her on that stage, even when she’s surrounded by droids and aliens. The shoes are kinda meh, but we’re surprised to admit that we like the pixie cut. As for the news, we’re ambivalent. We liked Rey’s character and Ridley’s portrayal of her, right up until they named her parentage and had her adopt the Skywalker name. We were much more interested in the Rian Johnson version from The Last Jedi, which implied that you didn’t need to be part of some Force dynasty in order to make a difference in the universe. It was long past time to put the Skywalker saga to bed and whatever else its flaws, at least The Rise of Skywalker managed that by its end. We’re not super-thrilled about a return, even if it’s an adopted member of the family. We’re also not particularly interested in the proposed storyline, which has her resurrecting the Jedi Order, something the sequels and prequels tended to argue against. In sum: she’s great, it’ll probably be fun seeing her wielding a light saber again, but nothing about this feels particularly fresh and, given how stale the Star Wars universe has become (more on that in today’s podcast), this isn’t very exciting news.

[Photo Credit: Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney, Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney]

• Daisy Ridley
• Red Carpet