But that doesn’t mean she won’t.
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Daisy Ridley flat-out said she doesn’t want to play Rey after J.J. Abrams directs Episode IX. Here’s the exchange after she was asked about it:
“No,” she says flatly. “For me, I didn’t really know what I was signing on to. I hadn’t read the script, but from what I could tell, it was really nice people involved, so I was just like, ‘Awesome.’ Now I think I am even luckier than I knew then, to be part of something that feels so like coming home now.”
But, um, doesn’t that sort of sound like a yes? “No,” she says again, smiling a little. “No, no, no. I am really, really excited to do the third thing and round it out, because ultimately, what I was signing on to was three films. So in my head, it’s three films. I think it will feel like the right time to round it out.”
In the same article, J.J. Abrams also said he felt that Episode IX was the end of the Skywalker saga that has driven the nine-film story. “I do see it that way,” he says. “But the future is in flux.”
So maybe it’s not done? The real answer here is, of course, that there is no answer yet. Ridley sees the story ending at Episode IX because the trilogy will conclude, just like Return of the Jedi concluded the original trilogy. (After that, Rian Johnson is creating three new films that have nothing to do with the Skywalkers.) But Ridley also said if 30 years down the road she was asked to come back, she would. And though she’s only contracted for these three films, it seems incredibly possible that Disney could back the proverbial dump truck of cash to her house to sign her back up, 30 years from now, or even in 2020.
As Abrams says, the future of Star Wars is in flux. However, it does seem likely these characters may get a nice, long vacation after 2019, if nothing else.
The Last Jedi opens December 15. Episode IX starts filming next year, with a targeted release date of December 20, 2019.