The Rey-centric and tentatively тιтled Star Wars: New Jedi Order movie will have to push Star Wars outside its comfort zone – something the franchise has actively been avoiding for the past 10 years. Star Wars: New Jedi Order was announced at Star Wars Celebration 2023, marking the official return of Daisy Ridley’s Jedi, Rey. Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy has been tapped to direct the feature, which will see Rey Skywalker lead a new Jedi Order 15 years after the events of the undeniably divisive Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

Star Wars: New Jedi Order has not officially been dubbed Episode X, and with good reason. As far as we know, it’s not the start of a new Star Wars trilogy – though there are rumors that Ridley will make more than one reappearance – so it has the opportunity to do something new. If New Jedi Order is indeed meant to be a standalone story, a launch point for an unexplored era of the Star Wars timeline, Lucasfilm will have to do something it arguably hasn’t done since George Lucas first created Star Wars.

Star Wars Has Been Dining Out On Nostalgia For 10 Years

After Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, there was a lull in Star Wars activity. Sure, the franchise eventually thrived on the animated side of things with Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, but relatively speaking, the animated shows are watched by a small sample of the total Star Wars audience. Given the criticism endured by the prequel trilogy, Star Wars’ return to the big screen had to not only launch a new era but also give general audiences a reason to invest in the franchise again.

The result of this careful balance was 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, a film that essentially functioned as a retelling of the first Star Wars movie – later reтιтled A New Hope – but which introduced viewers to a new cast of characters, each with their own seemingly limitless storytelling potential. Rey, Finn, Poe, and Kylo Ren were meant to be beacons of change despite sharing the screen with Star Wars legends of old. Unfortunately, though, the franchise couldn’t fully let go of the Skywalkers and their legacy.

Part of the reason the Star Wars sequel trilogy was and has remained divisive is because of how Star Wars let the old influence the new. Star Wars made several attempts to do something unexpected – Han Solo’s death, Luke Skywalker’s adverse reaction to Rey’s appearance, the sudden murder of Supreme Leader Snoke – but the franchise nevertheless fell back on the familiar time and time again, like Yoda’s Force ghost, Emperor Palpatine’s resurrection, and Lando Calrissian’s brief appearance. On the whole, the sequel trilogy’s story was held back by one incredibly powerful force: nostalgia.

Even the excellent and generally well-received Rogue One: A Star Wars Story relied heavily on the stories that had come before, including cameos from beloved characters like Princess Leia and Darth Vader. Of course, this comes down to Rogue One’s story, though one could argue that it was a story that didn’t necessarily need to be told (though I’m infinitely glad it was). Solo: A Star Wars Story, meanwhile, failed despite Han Solo’s long-lasting legacy. Star Wars seemingly never took that lesson to heart.

Interestingly, when Star Wars released The Mandalorian season 1 on Disney+ in 2019, the same year Rise of Skywalker was released, it felt like the franchise had finally learned from the past. Here was a show that used established Star Wars lore – the lore of the Mandalorians – but gave audiences an entirely new perspective on it. It felt like a breath of fresh air.

And yet, even The Mandalorian was soon contaminated, for lack of a better word, by the pull of nostalgia. Characters from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, like Bo-Katan Kryze and Ahsoka Tano, were translated to live-action, and original trilogy legends like Boba Fett and even Luke Skywalker were given prominent roles as well. Will Star Wars ever let itself be truly innovative? History says no, but I’m hoping that New Jedi Order will be the start of something bold.

Rey’s New Jedi Order Movie Has To Do Something Fresh & New

The New Jedi Order movie can’t afford to be careful. It can’t rely on nostalgia any longer. However you may feel about her, Rey is a divisive character. If Star Wars wants its fanatic audience and casual audiences to embrace her as a character once more, it needs to give them a reason to. New Jedi Order essentially needs to reinvent Star Wars. Star Wars has to acknowledge the fact that the Skywalker bloodline is officially gone and face its future head-on.

This shouldn’t be too difficult. After all, Rey has the opportunity to reinvent the Jedi. She flirted with the darkness, learned from the Jedi’s mistakes, and personalized her lightsaber. Obaid-Chinoy’s film can change what it means to be a Jedi, putting a fresh spin on one of the most beloved parts of Star Wars’ storytelling. If what it means to be a Jedi changes, the very fabric of the franchise itself will change, too – hopefully, for the better.

Rey Is A Skywalker… With No Direct Ties To Anakin

Star Wars has officially acknowledged Rey as a Skywalker. There’s no turning back from her claimed name now. Of course, some people vehemently disagree with Rey’s new name, while others love the symbolism, but whatever your feelings on the matter, Rey is a Skywalker. More importantly, she’s a Skywalker with no direct ties to Anakin Skywalker, the Skywalker to end all other Skywalkers.

So far, every mainline Star Wars film has relied on Anakin’s or his darker counterpart’s legacy. The original trilogy revolved around Darth Vader’s redemption. The prequel trilogy chronicled Anakin’s fall from grace. The sequel trilogy’s primary antagonist wanted nothing more than to emulate his grandfather’s vicious darkness. Rey’s story cannot be weighed down by Anakin’s or Darth Vader’s names, however. He’s gone. His children are gone. His grandson is gone, too. If anything, Anakin and Darth Vader’s names should be relegated to the Star Wars history books.

Let a new villain rise to prominence. Let a different tragic hero take his place. Rey may be a Skywalker, but much like she can change what it means to be a Jedi, she can change what it means to be a Skywalker, too.

New Jedi Order is far enough removed from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. A lot can happen in 15 years. Change is on the horizon; if Star Wars wants to prove itself worthy of its audience’s devotion, if it wants to stay relevant and exciting, to survive and thrive, it needs to be daring. To paraphrase another famous space-faring franchise, Star Wars: New Jedi Order needs to boldly go where no Star Wars film has gone before.