Star Wars: Daisy Ridley drops main reason ‘divisive’ Rise of Skywalker response was so ‘upsetting’

Rey actor opened up about film’s discordant response from fans

Star Wars actor Daisy Ridley has opened up about the “divisive” response to The Rise of Skywalker, explaining why she found it so “upsetting”.

Ridley, who will soon return to the sci-fi franchise, played Rey in three films, starting with JJ Abrams’s The Force Awakens in 2015, and concluding with The Rise of Skywalker in 2019.

While The Force Awakens received praise from audiences, 2017 sequel The Last Jedi, directed by Rian Johnson, proved divisive with the final instalment in the series panned by many fans of the original franchise.

Months after her co-star Adam Driver shared his candid thoughts on The Rise of Skywalker, Ridley has reflected on the less-than-enthusiastic feedback to the film while promoting Sometimes I Think About Dying.

Speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Ridley said: “I think it’s still uspetting ‘cause you don’t want people to feel like you’ve not served the thing that they’re a fan of.”

Addressing The Last Jedi, the British actor said: “Rian’s one is super divisive, and the last one is super divisive.” However, she maintained that the criticism “didn’t change how I felt about it”.

Ridley is returning as Rey in a brand new Star Wars film, which will be written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight and directed by Pakistani-Canadian filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy.

The actor, who previously described the film’s story as “cool as s***”, said in the new interview that she thought she might be asked to return as Rey further down the line, but was surprised to have been drafted in for another Star Wars project so soon after The Rise of Skywalker.

“I thought maybe in a little while – pop in, say hi, pop out again,” she said, adding: “The timeline was a surprise to me.”

‘Star Wars’ actor Daisy Ridley found ‘Rise of Skywalker’ response ‘upsetting’ (Lucasfilm)

Earlier this month, Obaid-Chinoy said of the film: “I’m very thrilled about the project because I feel what we’re about to create is something very special. We’re in 2024 now, and it’s about time that we had a woman come forward to shape a story in a galaxy far, far away.”