With Daisy Ridley set to return to the “Star Wars” franchise as Rey in a new film set after the events of 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” many fans are wondering whether or not the actor’s co-stars might also book a return trip to a galaxy far, far away. John Boyega’s Finn and Oscar Isaac’s Poe were alive by the end of that film, making their potential returns a possibility, whereas Adam Driver‘s Kylo Ren/Ben Solo died a hero. Of course, characters often come back from the dead in “Star Wars” — but don’t bank on Kylo Ren being one of them.
“They’re doing stuff, but not with me,” Driver said during a recent appearance on the “SmartLess” podcast. “I’m not doing any more.”
“You’re done because the character’s done?” podcast co-host Sean Haynes asked as a follow-up question, to which Driver responded: “Yes.”
“‘Star Wars’ was way more exhausting for me … I made it more exhausting than it should have been,” Driver added. “I hadn’t quite figured out the momentum of a set that was that big before. All the things I had worked on were pretty small and moved pretty fast … The director sets the pace of the set. I don’t like to control that. I have to adjust. Spike Lee and [Steven] Soderbergh shoot really fast. For me that’s not comfortable, but it’s there movie and their film so I adjust.”
Driverrevealed on “The Rich Eisen Show” last month that his arc as Kylo Ren completed changed from its original plan over the course of his three films: “The Force Awakens” (2015), “The Last Jedi” (2017) and “The Rise of Skywalker” (2019). The character was never supposed to soften up and be redeemed as Ben Solo. In fact, the original plan was apparently just the opposite. Kyle Ren was supposed to become more evil during the trilogy, not a conflicted anti-hero.
“I had an overall arc in mind that [J.J. Abrams] wanted to do,” Driver said. “His idea was that [Kylo’s] journey was the opposite journey of Vader, where Vader starts the most confident and the most committed to the dark side. And then by the last movie, he’s the most vulnerable and weak. He wanted to start with the opposite. This character was the most confused and vulnerable, and by the end of the three movies, he would be the most committed to the dark side. I tried to keep that arc in mind, regardless if that wound up not being the journey anyway, because it changed while shooting. But I was still focused on that.”
Daisy Ridley’s follow-up movie to “The Rise of Skywalker” will center on her character, Rey, as she attempts to rebuild the Jedi Order. The film is directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (“Ms. Marvel”) and written by Steven Knight (“Peaky Blinders”) and makes Obaid-Chinoy the first woman and first person of color to direct a “Star Wars” feature film.
“I’m very thrilled about the project because I feel what we’re about to create is something very special,” Obaid-Chinoy recently toldCNN. “We’re in 2024 now, and it’s about time that we had a woman come forward to shape a story in a galaxy far, far away.”
Ridley toldColliderin November that she had not yet read the script for her new movie but she did know the story plan.“I’m very excited,” she said. “The story is really cool … It’s not what I expected, but I’m very excited.”
The film currently does not have a release date.
