Daisy Ridley says the backlash to The Rise of Skywalker is "still upsetting," but none of it has changed how she feels about her Star Wars experience

Rey in The Rise of Skywalker
(Image credit: Disney/Lucasfilm)

Daisy Ridley has shared her thoughts on the backlash to Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

The film closed out the sequel trilogy back in 2019, but proved divisive with fans and critics alike. 

"I think it's still upsetting," Ridley told the Happy Sad Confused podcast. "Because you don't want people to feel like you've not served the thing that they're a fan of."

Ridley also acknowledged that the backlash wasn't just reserved for Episode 9, pointing to Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi – which is still the subject of fierce debate all these years later. "Rian's one was so divisive," she added. "It really felt like the first one was fairly – everyone was responsive in a similar way. And then Rian's one, super divisive. And then the last one, super divisive." 

But, it didn't affect Ridley's view of her Star Wars experience. "It didn't change how I felt about it," she said. 

Ridley is set to return as Rey for another Star Wars movie set after The Rise of Skywalker, which will see her attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order. "Rey has made a promise to Luke and that's really the core of where we're going and what this story will be," Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told us last year. "And I think it offers just tremendous opportunity to introduce new characters and start with something fresh, because we culminated with what George [Lucas] was creating, and now we take all of that and move it to the next chapter." 

In the meantime, this year in Star Wars brings new Young Jedi Adventures, The Bad Batch season 3, Skeleton Crew, Tales of the Jedi season 2, and The Acolyte. 

While you wait, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows for everything else the galaxy far, far away has in store. 

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Molly Edwards
Senior Entertainment Writer

I'm a Senior Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering all things film and TV for the site's Total Film and SFX sections. I previously worked on the Disney magazines team at Immediate Media, and also wrote on the CBeebies, MEGA!, and Star Wars Galaxy titles after graduating with a BA in English.