“Rey is the most valuable cinematic asset, In some ways the only one.”
That is a quote from an alleged LucasFilm insider that the Hollywood Reporter talked to. What is unbelievably tragic is that he is perfectly right. LucasFilm at this point has nothing else.
A lot of this comes down to Disney’s institutional commitments and incredibly passive-aggressive corporate culture.
At Disney, even the mildest of constructive criticisms feels like a vicious attack because at Disney, it is.
And if you are foolish or desperate enough to take your successful IP to Disney, they will be happy to buy it, lock it up, and throw away the key. If they decide to do anything with it, the first question will be the assumed, “Hey, don’t we already have something like that?” This is how Bill Willingham’s brilliant Fables was turned into, meh, Once Upon a Time and Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files turned into long forgotten The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010). Sure Disney owns Luke, Han, and Leia but they didn’t invent them and that matters to Disney to an unbelievable amount.
If Disney is going to use a pre-existing character, it will only be to introduce and support a new character. Obi-Wan was used to introduce Reva. Darth Vader and Tarkin were used to introduce Andor. And the Big Three were used to introduce Rey and the gang, which brings me back to my main point.
Mando and Grogu were always TV characters and their story is told. Now they are just a big pile of wasted potential.
Andor is a good show but he just isn’t selling. One more season will be it and also he’s dead, which is kind of a limiter to character progression.
LucasFilm’s one attempt at a wholly new creation, The Acolyte, was an utterly laughable disaster.
That means Rey is the only character they can point to and say, she made billions at the box office. This is a factually accurate statement. The Force Awakens did make a profit relative to its own budget, and excluding the $4 billion-plus Iger paid for the franchise.
The Last Jedi for all of its many cinematic sins pulled in $1.3 billion. That is still a win if only just.
The Rise of Skywalker only barely cleared a billion at the box office but that was only a “moral” victory. Given that a half billion was spent on production and the promotional budget was probably north of $200 million at least. Meaning, it lost hundreds of millions. Regardless, LucasFilm can still claim that it made a billion, which it did.
Which means, until she has a movie that bombs Rey’s movies have never made less than a billion dollars. As laughable as this feels, it is an indisputable fact.
There’s a test writers use with their beta readers to see if they have developed a good character, you ask the beta reader, “Without physically describing the character, describe the character to me.” You can do that pretty easily for Han, Luke, Leia, C3PO, Darth Vader and even R2D2.
Now without physically describing Rey, describe Rey.
It was kind of doable after the first movie. Rey had crippling abandonment issues and was trying to find a place to fit in. But after 3 movies her motivations have bounced all over the place so much you can’t really put your finger on who she is because there is no longer any kind of coherent whole to her. She just is whatever the picture she’s in needs her to be at any given moment and usually with no real motivation for being what she is.
There is no character there.
Kathleen Kennedy LucasFilm can’t see that because the feminists who work there have (for all intents and purposes) imposed their own personalities on the blank slate that is Rey.
I am getting the impression that there is an air of toxic positivity surrounding Rey. Everyone at LucasFilm is saying how She is their most important cinematic asset because you don’t dare be the one who points out she isn’t.
Until Rey is a disaster in her own right, she’s the only thing they can cling to. Hence the new Rey movie coming out in 2026?
Do you think you can describe Rey without saying anything about her appearance?
UPDATE: And just before I hit post this drops. Star Wars X has just been replaced on the 2026 schedule with Ice Age 6.
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