The Rise of Skywalker Daisy Ridley as Rey (IX)

[DarthSkywalker]

Today is the 28th birthday, of my favorite space wizard knight!

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Daisy Ridley: “It was probably nice for Mark to be more like the Luke of old [in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker]. Which I think J.J. [Abrams] felt like he really wanted that. It was nice to feel – and even in the scene – to feel really comforted that like ‘Luke Skywalker is here.'” (April 9, 2020)

Daisy Ridley: “[Reaction]’s changed film by film honestly, like 98% it’s so amazing, this last film it was really tricky. January was not that nice. It was weird, I felt like all of this love that we’d sort of been shown the first time around, I was like ‘Where’s the love gone?’ I watched the documentary, the making-of, this week, and it’s so filled with love; and I think it’s that tricky thing of when you’re part of something that is so filled with love and then people…You know, everyone’s entitled to not like something but it feels like it’s changed slightly. I think in general that’s because social media and what have you.” “If I went to a film and didn’t like it, I just wouldn’t tweet about it. But it’s such a conversation and it always has been. I guess now conversations are just more public, so there’s stuff I wouldn’t have seen, but honestly trying to scroll through my news feed in January and trying not to see Star Wars stuff, I’d see headlines and be like ‘Oh my god this is so upsetting.’ It’s been tricky but then it’s having that thing of I feel really proud of it, and I’m so thrilled to be part of it. But it’s a funny thing.” (April 11, 2020)

 

[Bobber]

Seeing some of the actors trash talking The Last Jedi, before this one came out, to get some brownie points from the angry fanboys, really rubbed me the wrong way.

Not really specifically aimed at Daisy Ridley, I was just reminded because of the quote above me, about this films reaction.

 

[Sian]

I..... suspect both John and Daisy can't quite handle fame very well. They've been thrust into the spotlight and its new and a bit overwhelming for them.

 

[vantheman77]

The stuff with Rey, Luke, and Kylo is the only thing I care about besides Han, Leia, and Lando.

 

[Hunter Rider]

 

[Sian]

Thing is, Daisy's character had the most screen time and was the dominant character of TROS. She also got to spend plenty of time with John, a close friend in real life. So it stands to reason she probably enjoyed making it far more than she did TLJ.
Unfortunately a lot of people didn't have as much fun watching it!

 

[TheVileOne]

I still think Daisy Ridley is a stunning, amazing talent. She was a great find for this franchise.

 

[Sian]

TROS made me despise her character but that's the fault of the writers, not Daisy.

 

[TheVileOne]

TROS made me despise her character but that's the fault of the writers, not Daisy.

I understand. While despise is not the word I would use, but I was just not invested with her journey by the end of it.

I also thought she was good in Orient Express. I hope last Skywalker doesn't hurt her future career prospects because of Chris Terrio's awful writing.

 

[Sian]

I think they were so busy retconning TLJ and putting Abrams and Terrio's fanfiction on screen they forgot to tell an actual story.
Rey was turned into some kind of weird Force goddess and every other character was wasted, apart from Poe, who was over used. He had more screen time than Kylo, as much as Finn, and yet was only supposed to have a cameo appearance in TFA!

 

[MagnarTheGreat]

Daisy Ridley: "Here's the thing. This is what I know you're gonna talk about. You [Josh Gad] wanted to come visit the set when we were filming the film. And it never worked out. Then we were doing additional photography and I said, 'It's a massive spoiler. If you come it's a huge spoiler but it would be great if you did.' And you came!"

Josh Gad: "I know there was a scheduling conflict. I know that I showed up on a day where you told me there's a spoiler. What you didn't tell me is that it was like 'Kevin Spacey revealing he is Keyser Soze' style spoiler."

Daisy Ridley: "No [I have not been keeping Rey's secret from the beginning and didn't know the parentage from the beginning]. At the beginning, there was toying with like an Obi-wan [Kenobi] connection and then, um, it really went...there were like different versions and then it really went to she was no one and then it came to Episode IX and JJ pitched me the film and was like, 'Oh yeah, Palpatine’s [Rey's] granddaddy,' and I was like, 'Awesome!' and then two weeks later he was like 'Oh, we're not sure [anymore]...' So it kept changing! So even as we were filming and I wasn’t sure what the answer was gonna be." "You tell me, Josh, [who Rey's grandmother is]." (September 8, 2020) (archive)

 

[antsman41]

Her “awesome” was sarcastic.

JJ did Rey dirty... this film is truly atrocious and an actual stain on the Star Wars saga.

 

[Tenet]

Her “awesome” was sarcastic.

JJ did Rey dirty... this film is truly atrocious and am actual stain on the Star Wars saga.

The Last Jedi did the damage. It all fell apart after that

Although if I am fair the single biggest mistake was

Disney not letting Luke & the OG 4 unite & be in Episode 7 together

Its probably the biggest sin & The Last Jedi would be the 2nd biggest sin

 

[antsman41]

Making her a nobody is wonderful... the prequels were so insular. Then JJ made it even worse with “everything is related” by making her a Palpatine.

They didn’t even think out the logistics. Same with the Death Star remains, the Dyad nonsense, and the whole pyramid map things. All of those things are no more importance or have built in worth as did Batman’s ice car or Batskates... “cool” things that serve zero worth.

Ha, just figured out how TROS was essentially B&R of Star Wars.

 

[Tenet]

Making her a nobody is wonderful... the prequels were so insular. Then JJ made it even worse with “everything is related” by making her a Palpatine.

They didn’t even think out the logistics. Same with the Death Star remains, the Dyad nonsense, and the whole pyramid map things. All of those things are no more importance or have built in worth as did Batman’s ice car or Batskates... “cool” things that serve zero worth.

Ha, just figured out how TROS was essentially B&R of Star Wars.

If you wanna play this game The Last Jedi is the Batman v Superman of Star Wars (which is worse) & the nobody "message" was silly since there were already plenty of Jedi shown in the PT alone that were nobody special & not named Skywalker or Palpatine & if you slam JJA you slam them all. Nobody thought of anything & nobody worked together on this trilogy

 

[Mani-Man]

You know i just dont get it.
Its not like they did decide one day to make the sequels and then started filming the next.

This all took months if not years to prepare, yet the most important part of this wasnt finished...the writing?
How, i mean how...how the **** do you prepare the sequel trilogy for months/years and not have them mapped out...not even after the first movie is released?

And this really starts to piss me off right now.
I made my peace, found my enjoyment in the sequels...but right now this all starts to come up and im super pissed at them.
Because i just dont get how this all could turn this way?

I mean even if we argue for some reason that they had a clean state, nothing to guide you...how the hell do you then not create a straight line on your own so that you have something to go with?
Even fanfiction writer, people who make streams, youtubers mostly plan, give themself a direction.
How can one of the biggest entertainment companies work on one of the biggest franchises this half assed? I seriously can not wrap my head around this all.

 

[Tenet]

You know i just dont get it.
Its not like they did decide one day to make the sequels and then started filming the next.

This all took months if not years to prepare, yet the most important part of this wasnt finished...the writing?
How, i mean how...how the **** do you prepare the sequel trilogy for months/years and not have them mapped out...not even after the first movie is released?

And this really starts to piss me off right now.
I made my peace, found my enjoyment in the sequels...but right now this all starts to come up and im super pissed at them.
Because i just dont get how this all could turn this way?

I mean even if we argue for some reason that they had a clean state, nothing to guide you...how the hell do you then not create a straight line on your own so that you have something to go with?
Even fanfiction writer, people who make streams, youtubers mostly plan, give themself a direction.
How can one of the biggest entertainment companies work on one of the biggest franchises this half assed? I seriously can not wrap my head around this all.

Its the current line of thinking in Hollywood "If something is based on a popular IP with a built in fan base the fan base will come & support it no matter what we do"

 

[BatLobster]

You know i just dont get it.
Its not like they did decide one day to make the sequels and then started filming the next.

This all took months if not years to prepare, yet the most important part of this wasnt finished...the writing?
How, i mean how...how the **** do you prepare the sequel trilogy for months/years and not have them mapped out...not even after the first movie is released?

And this really starts to piss me off right now.
I made my peace, found my enjoyment in the sequels...but right now this all starts to come up and im super pissed at them.
Because i just dont get how this all could turn this way?

I mean even if we argue for some reason that they had a clean state, nothing to guide you...how the hell do you then not create a straight line on your own so that you have something to go with?
Even fanfiction writer, people who make streams, youtubers mostly plan, give themself a direction.
How can one of the biggest entertainment companies work on one of the biggest franchises this half assed? I seriously can not wrap my head around this all.

Here's the thing. They didn't have them planned out for years. Disney set release dates before they ever had a finished script for even one of the films. Lucas' outlines are said to have been extremely bare bones.

Lucas brought on Michael Ardnt. Ardnt wanted to map out the whole trilogy. However he's a very slow a methodical writer, and Bob Iger ultimately wanted it to go in another direction anyway. Iger was 100% committed to a 2015 release no matter what. He jettisoned Lucas' ideas and Ardnt with him.

Now JJ's doing a Page 1 rewrite with Kasdan in late 2013-- with their backs against the wall, as sets are being built and they have to be shooting in a matter of months. And not only that, but they have release dates for sequels spaced 2 years apart too, and JJ is unwilling to helm them all because it's a unrelenting schedule that would mean he got no downtime with his family whatsoever for years. He is just focused on trying to make one stand alone film with some very loose ideas of where it might go. Hence you get a simple, straight forward nostalgic romp, full of the the most vague setups that can go in any number of directions. In theory, this approach would give the other filmmakers room to improvise and evolve the story organically-- as other trilogies (including the OT) have managed to do successfully.

To answer your questions, the corporate machine is how it all happened. Bob Iger wasn't concerned about giving the development period the adequate amount of time it needed. It would've been an enormous creative challenge for even the most talented people in Hollywood, without George Lucas' help, to come up with a grand story actually worthy of being the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Clearly this was something that had even stumped Lucas himself for years, because the story had always effectively ended in ROTJ. Iger was more concerned about the tone capturing the OT nostalgia, releasing the movies ASAP and making a lot of money off his investment. He eventually budged and gave Kennedy/JJ a December 2015 release, but it still wasn't enough time to properly

All big movies are where art meets commerce. I think when it comes to the ST and TFA in particular, commerce won out and that had an impact on the trilogy as a whole.

 

[Frodo]

I always felt the "Skywalker Saga" from a linear pov, pretty much ended in 1983 with ROTJ.

You had the prequels of course, but that was filling in the blanks to a story that was already done.

That story was basically over imo, and moving forward from that was always going to be problematic.

Regardless of whatever outlines Lucas had with the Skywalker kids, IMO, the story was effectively done.

Sometimes , you have to just leave well enough alone and tell new stories with new characters , which is the route they finally seem to be going on now.

Ironically, I feel they had interesting enough characters that didn't have to be related to the OT characters, which could have carried a new trilogy with the next generation.

In other words, a Kylo like Character without the Skywalker name, a Rey like character who's not a Palpatine or whatever, a former Stormtrooper who turns to the other side, etc, were strong enough concepts to develop into a new story independent of the OT and the OT characters.

But hey, the films they made made Billions , so its gonna be much harder for Disney/Lucasfilm to feel they made a mistake in their creative vision.

 

[jmc]

You know i just dont get it.
Its not like they did decide one day to make the sequels and then started filming the next.

This all took months if not years to prepare, yet the most important part of this wasnt finished...the writing?
How, i mean how...how the **** do you prepare the sequel trilogy for months/years and not have them mapped out...not even after the first movie is released?

And this really starts to piss me off right now.
I made my peace, found my enjoyment in the sequels...but right now this all starts to come up and im super pissed at them.
Because i just dont get how this all could turn this way?

I mean even if we argue for some reason that they had a clean state, nothing to guide you...how the hell do you then not create a straight line on your own so that you have something to go with?
Even fanfiction writer, people who make streams, youtubers mostly plan, give themself a direction.
How can one of the biggest entertainment companies work on one of the biggest franchises this half assed? I seriously can not wrap my head around this all.

The only way this makes any sense to me is if they genuinely believed Star Wars fans were going to turn up no matter what they created. There's no other logical reason for it to have turned out the way it did other than shear arrogance. As you rightfully point out, any person with even a molecule of creativity would know that for something like Star Wars you need an idea of where you're going. It doesn't need to be 100% worked out, but there needs to be some type of foundation in place. Disney's size as you point out should have ensured things went smoothly. The problem is the company hasn't acted in creative way for well over a decade. It use to innovate and try new things, so if the culture there is no longer about creativity, then the only lens they can look through is one of branding. They saw it as a brand, not as something people love, not as something to build from. Too busy looking over excel spreadsheets and making assumption based on when George owned the rights than putting any real focus on whether they were doing something coherent.

 

[jmc]

But hey, the films they made made Billions , so its gonna be much harder for Disney/Lucasfilm to feel they made a mistake in their creative vision.

When you start to see the numbers dropping across the board with the brand, not just the box office, it's takes an extraordinary lack of self awareness to believe everything is fine.

 

[Blade Hoarder]

I remember when Rise of the Skywalker ended up with half the gross of the first one many Star Wars fans rationalized it as “this is fine”.

imagine if Endgamr ended up making 750 million dollars, half the gross of the Avengers. Would they say it’s fine then?

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Interesting they considered making her a Kenobi.

I didn’t hate her being a Palpatine, but the execution was off.

 

[godisawesome]

If you wanna play this game The Last Jedi is the Batman v Superman of Star Wars (which is worse) & the nobody "message" was silly since there were already plenty of Jedi shown in the PT alone that were nobody special & not named Skywalker or Palpatine & if you slam JJA you slam them all. Nobody thought of anything & nobody worked together on this trilogy

The ethos behind “Rey Nobody” tends to be a bit trash because it fundamentally didn’t benefit but instead hurt Rey’s character in TLJ where it was proposed - that movie kicked her out of the climactic confrontation and focus the second she was revealed no to be a Skywalker - and because the film has a blatant hypocrisy exposed in how it favors Kylo because of who his parents are while trashing Finn for not being related to anyone important.

Rey Palpatine *does* do more to help her character out when LFL refused to treat Kylo as a pure villain or as the hopelessly evil deconstructive tool that an egalitarian message needed - if it’s good for the Neo-Nazi, it’s good for the main heroine.

Yes, it still screws over the Skywalkers, but that’s just what Kylo/Ben IS when not given a counterpart and when he’s still a shallow and banal retread of Anakin without the sympathy or heroism - a one man train-wreck to a previous six film storyline with a previously satisfying ending now set on fire.

Rey Nobody could only mean something of of Kylo was used to prove his being Somebody didn’t matter - and was a nonsense point to make in the first place, since the Skywalker are nobodies in origin, as are pretty much all known Jedi, and again, Finn.