The still-untitled Star Wars film focusing on Rey after the events of The Rise of Skywalker has lost its second writer. After Damon Lindeloff and Justin Britt-Gibson stepped away from the project, acclaimed writer Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders, Rogue Heroes) stepped in to fill the role in early 2023. But, per Variety, Knight has also stepped away from the project, forcing Lucasfilm, yet again, to search for talent to bring their vision to life.

While Lucasfilm has three Star Wars films on the horizon-two in 2026 and one in 2027-this setback will likely delay the Rey film. The news comes mere days after Daisy Ridley was quoted saying, “Things are evolving. I continue to be very excited. There will be an update soon.” in relation to the untitled Star Wars film, suggesting Knight’s departure from the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy directed film was rather abrupt. So, in a way, she was right, but I doubt this was the news she was referring to, as Knight’s exit appears to be related to creative differences with the studio after submitting four drafts of the script over 18 months.

Knight’s departure is part of an epidemic at Lucasfilm, where they announce projects far too early in development, only to face a flurry of creative problems early in pre-production, which force talent to leave and sometimes result in projects being scrapped altogether. Besides, Lindeloff and Knight, Lucasfilm have seen the likes of Kevin Feige, Rian Johnson, Benioff and Weiss, Lord and Miller, Josh Trank, Patty Jenkins, Taika Watiti, Colin Trevorrow, Stephen Daldry, and Justin Simien (among more!) fired or resigned from Star Wars projects at Lucasfilm. With that kind of track record, it must be getting harder and harder to find talent to work on their projects, as creators will be wary of putting in all that time on a project, knowing there’s a good chance that work will be for naught. It’ll be interesting to see who gets hired as the third writer for this particular movie.