Disney and Lucasfilm's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker concluded the main saga and wrapped up the three-film journey of Daisy Ridley's Rey. Yet, despite portraying the lead heroine of the financially successful Star Wars sequel trilogy, Ridley was unable to find new work after completing her time with the franchise.
Ridley made her first appearance as Rey in J. J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the heroine has since become one of the most celebrated characters in the entire franchise. After being thrust into superstardom, Daisy Ridley would land roles in notable projects such as Murder on the Orient Express and Peter Rabbit in between reprising her role as Rey in Star Wars: The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ridley noted that the break after completing the Star Wars sequels benefited her mental health. "When the film was released, I was like, 'Oh my God.' It was such a huge chapter. And, weirdly, the past few months of not having much… Obviously now it’s really nice to be working, but not having much [at the time] I feel like I processed the last five years. To be forced to slow down, it was good mentally for me because [Star Wars was] a big thing in my life," Ridley explained. However, Ridley added that she was concerned when there wasn't any new work coming in at the beginning of the year, saying, "there were actually loads of things that I auditioned for at the beginning of the year and didn’t get any of them. I had that moment of 'Oh my god!' and then just thought 'everything in its right time."
Ridley added that "things started picking up" in late February and early March when she landed the voice role of woman in the Xbox and PC game Twelve Minutes. Since then, Ridley has also been cast in a crime thriller titled The Ice Beneath Her from STX Entertainment. Based on the bestselling novel by Swedish author Camilla Grebe, the story follows a detective and psychological profiler working to solve a case involving a woman who is found beheaded in the home of a prominent businessman.
While Ridley will next be seen in Chaos Walking opposite Tom Holland, that project completed production before The Rise of Skywalker debuted in theaters. Although Chaos Walking initially wrapped production in November 2017, reshoots were not able to begin until April 2019 due to Ridley's commitment to the Star Wars franchise.
Disney and Lucasfilm, on the other hand, are moving full steam ahead with new Star Wars projects following the conclusion of the Skywalker saga. These projects include multiple television shows for Disney+ such as a second season of The Mandalorian and a Rogue One prequel starring Diego Luna as Cassian Andor.
Source: Entertainment Weekly