Star Wars is officially releasing the first new Rey Skywalker story in six years with an upcoming Audible Original, but why has it taken so long? Due to be released in October, Star Wars: The Jaws of Jakku is set in the aftermath of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and will see Rey and Finn return to Rey’s homeworld, where they’ll bond with a young girl on a dangerous mission.

Written by Cavan Scott and performed by Helen Sadler, The Jaws of Jakku won’t be told from Rey’s perspective. Instead, it’s told from the point of view of Rey and Finn’s new young friend, as they embark on a journey through Jakku’s dark underground tunnels and learn more about themselves, and possibly the Force, in the process.

While Rey hasn’t been completely absent from Star Wars since the release of 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, she’s never appeared in a brand-new story. This differs from Kylo Ren, for instance, whose journey between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker is currently being explored in the comic series Star Wars: Legacy of Vader, by Charles Soule, Nolan Woodard, and Luke Ross.

Pre-order Star Wars: The Jaws of Jakku from Audible

Lucasfilm Didn’t Know What To Do With The Sequel Characters

When The Rise of Skywalker was released, it cemented the divisive legacy of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. The arc wasn’t fully planned from the beginning, and a large part of the audience wasn’t responding to the story; what was Lucasfilm to do? Clearly, Star Wars has been biding its time, trying to find the right way to reintroduce sequel trilogy characters like Rey and Finn to a wider audience.

This isn’t the first time we’ve witnessed Lucasfilm holding back on developing characters or an unknown era of the Star Wars timeline. When the right narrative direction remains unclear, the creative team locks down the characters and concepts until the best path forward reveals itself.

This is, in large part, why the post-Return of the Jedi era, now known as the New Republic era and dominated by productions like The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, went largely unexplored until the launch of Disney+ in 2019. Now, that stretch of the timeline has become Star Wars’ leading light, culminating in the franchise’s return to theaters with 2026’s The Mandalorian and Grogu.

While Rey’s renaissance began with the announcement of the tentatively тιтled Star Wars: New Jedi Order movie in 2023, the upcoming publication of The Jaws of Jakku proves that Star Wars is committed to revisiting and developing its last remaining Jedi. Jakku is a major part of Rey’s story, after all, and has greatly influenced how she conducts herself as a Jedi and sees herself as a person.

Star Wars Now Knows Where Rey’s Story Is Going

A brief sample of The Jaws of Jakku provides a decent idea of where the story is headed. The young girl Rey and Finn meet is clearly obsessed with the Jedi, with Rey as the last pillar left of a dying Order. After Luke Skywalker’s death, Rey became “the” Jedi, the one meant to carry on the legacy and spread the Jedi’s message across the galaxy.

Given that New Jedi Order is set to take place 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker, there’s a sense that Lucasfilm is finally ready to move on from the weight of all that has come before. Rey may have adopted the Skywalker name, but she can carve out a new future for herself, changing what it means to be a Jedi and pushing the franchise into a new era.

The Jaws of Jakku can show us the beginnings of Rey’s training journey. By the time The Rise of Skywalker begins, she’s clearly practiced with Leia for a while, having honed her connection to the Force and her dueling skills. What happened in between that, though, and how has that affected her stance on the Jedi’s mission?

Will We Get Another Jedi From Jakku?

The Jaws of Jakku doesn’t just mark the start of a new exploration of Rey’s character, however. It could also potentially be the start of the New Jedi Order story. The Audible sample has the narrator character, the young girl Rey finds on Jakku, waxing lyrical about the Jedi and how they stood up to Emperor Palpatine’s tyranny.

What if The Jaws of Jakku isn’t just a cute, one-off story about Rey meeting a new friend? What if this new friend becomes the first recruit to Rey’s new Jedi Order? Having this young girl discover her Force abilities in the story would be a nice way to parallel Rey’s character arc and explore the hidden, untapped depths of Jakku.

Chuck Wendig’s “Aftermath” trilogy did reveal that Palpatine had built a hidden observatory on Jakku, after all. The Force could be hiding any number of secrets there, and the synopsis for The Jaws of Jakku suggests as much, even going so far as to imply Rey will get her first glimpse of Palpatine’s return on the dusty desert planet:

Following the events of The Last Jedi, Rey struggles to let go of her lonely childhood on the desert planet of Jakku. Hoping to have a breakthrough in her Jedi training, she returns to her home world with Finn and BB-8 in tow. When they meet a young girl on a dangerous mission to save her family, they travel through pitch-black tunnels beneath the sand where they encounter scurrying gnaw-jaws, a haunting terror from the past, and maybe—just maybe—hope for them all.

Many published Star Wars stories provide additional context without being necessary to understand the franchise’s main narrative throughline. The Jaws of Jakku could be one such story.

Clearly, Star Wars is finding its theatrical footing again after a few divisive (but financially lucrative) years, and it looks like the sequel trilogy’s characters, especially Rey, could still have a bright and exciting future ahead of them.