Daisy Ridley revealed that she no longer wants to play Rey after Episode 9. In a new interview about Star Wars: The Last Jedi with Rolling Stone, Daisy said she flat-out doesn’t want to play the leading character after J.J. Abrams directs Episode IX.
“No,” she says flatly. “For me, I didn’t really know what I was signing on to. I hadn’t read the script, but from what I could tell, it was really nice people involved, so I was just like, ‘Awesome.’ Now I think I am even luckier than I knew then, to be part of something that feels so like coming home now.”
But, um, doesn’t that sort of sound like a yes? “No,” she says again, smiling a little. “No, no, no. I am really, really excited to do the third thing and round it out, because ultimately, what I was signing on to was three films. So in my head, it’s three films. I think it will feel like the right time to round it out.”
In the same interview, J.J. Abrams also explained he felt that Episode IX was the end of the Skywalker saga that has driven the nine-film story. “I do see it that way,” he says. “But the future is in flux.”
So maybe the future of Star Wars is not over? Ridley says she sees the story ending at Episode IX because the trilogy will come to an end, just like Return of the Jedi ended the original trilogy. But Ridley also said if 30 years down the road she was asked to come back, she would. And while she’s only tracked for these three films, it seems incredibly possible that Disney could throw her enough money to make her sign up for another feature film.
The Last Jedi opens December 15. Episode IX starts filming next year, with a targeted release date of December 20, 2019.
