Lucasfilm Chief Kathleen Kennedy Hints At Star Wars Return For Sequel Trilogy Characters

Much to the chagrin of a segment of furious YouTubers, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy will reportedly continue to oversee the "Star Wars" empire (not to be confused with the Galactic Empire) for another three years. While the future of the franchise seems to be primarily on streaming with shows like "The Mandalorian" and its upcoming spin-offs, Disney knows there's still serious money to be made in the theatrical market, so the world remains curious about the next movie out of the gate now that Patty Jenkins' "Rogue Squadron" is grounded.

Could one of those upcoming "Star Wars" movies involve characters from the sequel trilogy? Will characters like Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe (Oscar Isaac) pop up in a new streaming series instead? According to Kennedy, discussions are being had about that as we speak.

In a new interview with Empire Magazine, Kennedy teased that Rey, Finn, and Poe are not gone forever.

"Certainly, those are not characters we're going to forget. They will live on, and those are conversations that are going on with the creative team as well."

That echoes comments Kennedy made way back in 2017, when she revealed that she and the team of creative executives at Lucasfilm were "looking at narratively where that might go; future stories beyond Episode IX with these new characters – Rey, Poe, Finn, BB-8."

There's just one problem: the actors who played Rey, Poe, and Finn are not exactly champing at the bit to reprise their roles. Oscar Isaac straight-up said that he was not interested in leading a Poe Dameron Disney+ show, John Boyega also said he refused to be in a Disney+ series ("I'll stay in the feature films," he conceded), and Daisy Ridley expressed serious doubts about coming back to play Rey again in any capacity:

"I just don't know if anything could top ['The Rise of Skywalker'], honestly. I think it's just a great story and a great close, and even though obviously the characters continue to exist, it would have to be so extraordinary [to return], and I don't know if that's possible."

Just before the release of "The Rise of Skywalker," Kennedy said the franchise was entering "a really important transition" period. "Now is the time to start thinking about how to segue into something new and different," she said at the time. But nearly two full years later, it remains unclear exactly what the future of "Star Wars" will look like, and what familiar faces may or may not be involved. But here's an idea: since Kennedy is obviously interested in exploring different segments of the familiar "Star Wars" timeline, could she jump ahead and tell a story about much older versions of Rey, Finn, and Poe and recast all three roles? If you'll excuse me, I'll be spending the rest of the day thinking about who could play older versions of that trio.