By George & Josh Bate
At Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023, Daisy Ridley was announced to return as Rey in an upcoming Star Wars movie set 15 years after The Rise of the Skywalker. In the film, Rey would take on the role of Jedi Master as she leads a New Jedi Order.
It has been over three years since this announcement and, outside of fleeting comments made by Ridley while promoting other movies and a handful of trade reports, disappointingly little is known about what the new movie has in store. Now more than ever, however, there appears to be a sense of direction for what the New Jedi Order movie will entail.
Released today, Star Wars: Legacy is a new novel from author Madeleine Roux, which follows Rey and Leia in between the events of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker as they try to repair the legendary Skywalker saber. Details spread throughout the novel and a key moment in the second interestingly lay the groundwork for the New Jedi Order movie.
Early on in the novel, Rey voices her frustration at being tasked to restart the Jedi Order. “I’m supposed to be the peace and the hope and the light,” Rey remarks. “I’ supposed to make this right and carry on the legacy of an entire religion that nobody has bothered teaching me about.”
Rey’s point about re-establishing the Jedi Order in the absence of much formal training reverberates strongly throughout Star Wars: Legacy. Rey refers to Luke’s ancient Jedi texts from Ahch-To to guide her training, but, until the point, has very little else to learn from given Leia’s relative inexperience in the ways of the Jedi.
All of this changes during Rey’s quest to repair the Skywalker saber. This quest takes Rey and Leia to Tython, a highly Force sensitive planet that previously featured in the novel Shadow of the Sith and in The Mandalorian Season 2 as the site where Grogu communed with Luke Skywalker and was later kidnapped by Moff GIdeon.
On Tython, Rey discovers an ancient Jedi temple built into a complex cave system. The temple is filled with Indiana Jones-esque booby traps, which, coupled with persistent visions of an evil version of herself, prevent Rey from discovering its secrets. But eventually, she does.
While attempting to find a forge that would allow her to repair the Skywalker saber, Rey comes across a number of lightsabers previously owned by Jedi from the Old Republic era and asks Leia to carry them for her.
As the temple is destroyed following a clash with a deadly creature, Rey manages to salvage numerous holotapes, recordings of ancient lectures and lessons from Old Republic era Jedi. This suggests that Rey, in attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order, will be able to refer to how the Jedi Order was organized in the Old Republic.
Later on in the novel, Rey makes comments to Leia that suggest her New Jedi Order will look markedly different from Jedi Orders of the past. “The more I learn about the Jedi, the more I… I don’t know, the more I want to change things,” Rey says.
Rey elaborates, “Sitting high up in this mountain with trials and riddles. Master Luke’s temple burning down. Parents giving away their children just because they could use the Force. It doesn’t, does it?”
Rey then makes a statement that contradicts a key tenet of the Jedi Order during the prequel trilogy, a tenet that was integral in Anakin Skywalker’s fall to the dark side. “Jedi were taught to let go of all attachments, but everyone needs something to fight for, and more than just ideas, people.”
Rey’s comments about attachment indicate that her New Jedi Order will look markedly different than the Jedi Orders of the past and, in turn, will subvert the problematic view on relationships that led to Anakin’s fall to the dark side. Yoda and other Jedi of the prequel trilogy era warned of the dangers of attachment, while Rey recognizes that community is important, perhaps more than ideas themselves.
It’s been several years since the New Jedi Order movie has received an official update from Lucasfilm and Disney, but the new novel Star Wars: Legacy unexpectedly offers a glimpse of what Daisy Ridley’s return to a galaxy far, far away may entail.
Star Wars: Legacy is now available from Random House Worlds