Adam Driver’s been really hitting the pavement doing his best to promote Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” a film he is clearly very proud of (and as a smaller Neon independent film, likely needs all the press it can get, as it only came out on Christmas Day; listen to our podcast interview with Mann here).
And you’ll likely want to file this under, “duh, no sh*t,” but hear us out first. In a new interview with the Smartless podcast, hosted by Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes, Driver was asked about the new upcoming “Star Wars” films, one of which will star Daisy Ridley’s Rey Skywalker character fifteen years after the events of “Star Wars: Rise Of Skywalker.”
Sure, Driver’s character is dead, sacrificed himself at the end of ‘Rise Of Skywalker’ so Rey could live. However, he could still turn up as a Force Ghost, which obviously so many actors have in the past, Alec Guinness, Mark Hamill, and even Harrison Ford (though technically he wasn’t a Force Ghost per se). So, no more Kylo Ren or Ben Solo as Force Ghost?
Driver acknowledged that some of the cast will be back, but not him. “They’re doing stuff, but not with me. I’m not doing any more [films],” he said simply of future “Star Wars” films. The actor was then hit with a follow-up, “You’re done because the character’s done?” which Driver confirmed was correct.
In another recent interview, Driver suggested he was disappointed with the way his Kylo Ren character’s planned arc was changed over the course of the new “Star Wars” trilogy, and one has to wonder if that’s the reason he’s closed the chapter on those films.
What’s that next “Star Wars” film about? Well, by all accounts, it is the “Star Wars” film that is shooting next, and it may even be sometime in early 2024 if rumors are correct. Unofficially titled “Star Wars: New Jedi Order” and expected to arrive in 2026, its original storyline was conceived of by Damon Lindelof (“Watchmen,” “Prometheus” and “Lost”), but he parted ways with Lucasfilm over creative differences somewhere in the process (and didn’t sound very happy about it). The film will be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (a documentarian who directed episodes of Disney+’s “Ms. Marvel” series and is being written by Steven Knight, the writer of “Eastern Promises,” “Spencer” and the creator/writer/showrunner of “Peaky Blinders.” Not much is known about it other than it’s supposed to be a film featuring, but not necessarily starring, Daisy Ridley as Rey training a new generation of Jedi when a new threat arises in the galaxy.
“I’m very excited. The story is really cool. I’m waiting to read a script because, obviously, I don’t have any other updates,” Ridley recently said. “It’s not what I expected, but I’m very excited.”
Lucasfilm currently has three “Star Wars” films on the calendar: a TBD of May 22, 2026 (which would presumably be the ‘Jedi Order’ movie), another TBD of December 18, 2026, and a final mystery film of December 17, 2027. Though, as we know, it’s not like Lucasfilm hasn’t blown past future dates in the past and missed the film altogether (see “Star Wars: Rogue Squadron,” which was once scheduled for December 22, 2023.
Let’s hope we learn more details in 2024, but for now, we can cross Adam Driver off our list of potential appearances.