'The Rise of Skywalker': The Heartwarming Reason Daisy Ridley Loved Her Bizarre Wrap Gift from J.J. Abrams

The Star Wars Skywalker saga has finally come to an end, and Daisy Ridley got a great and unusual gift to show for it. 

No, that’s not a spoiler for the movie, it’s a description of how Ridley took to her wrap gift she got from director J.J. Abrams. In fact, many of the key members of the cast got unique wrap gifts, although some went over better than others. Some parts going over better than others pretty well describes the new movie too. 

What gifts did Abrams give?

It’s not too uncommon for filmmakers to give their stars gifts after a movie is done, particularly when it’s the last movie of a pop culture juggernaut that has dominated the cultural conversation for more than 40 years now. J.J. Abrams, who is known to be particularly gregarious, made sure that his actors had something to remember the experience by – besides all that fame and fortune stuff.

Yahoo Entertainment reported that John Boyega, who plays Finn, got a Spider-Man-themed stormtrooper helmet. Oscar Isaac, who plays Poe Dameron, got a box of Oscar Isaac chocolates, which Isaac seemed to underplay until Boyega said, “Hold on a second. Those were literally molded, like, they said Oscar Isaac imprinted in the chocolate. Handmade! Don’t go, ‘I got Oscar Isaac chocolates,’ like I picked them up at the store, like they’re from Nordstrom’s. What the hell?”

But it was Daisy Ridley, AKA Rey, who got the most offbeat gift. Abrams and Ridley both love The Great British Baking Show, so Abrams gave Ridley a lifelike mask of their favorite contestant on the show, whom they coyly refuse to name. She wasn’t kidding when she said it was “a touch obscure.” 

The sequel trilogy was a gift to Daisy Ridley

Unique though the gift may be, it pales in comparison to the gift J.J. Abrams gave Daisy Ridley by casting her in Star Wars: The Force Awakens in the first place. Isaac and Boyega had some notable credits prior to entering the land that George Lucas built, but Ridley was a virtual unknown when she got the gig. When Disney released the famous photo of the The Force Awakens cast at a table read for the script, many people looked at Ridley and said, “Who’s she?”

The Force Awakens established Rey as the key figure in the sequel trilogy. Ridley and Rey both went from being no one to someone special quite quickly. Ridley got to do everything from singing with Barbra Streisand to being part of a whodunit in Murder on the Orient Express. Yes, there were pitfalls. Like other Star Wars actors, Ridley found social media more trouble than it was worth, and Rey was at the center of some of the most controversial decisions in the trilogy. 

Through it all, Ridley has remained steadfast and grateful for the experience.

“I want to be a working actor, and I am currently unemployed, so I’m not succeeding right now,” she jokingly told Variety. “I just want to be in good things and work with great people. I read amazing things a lot of the time.”

‘Rise of Skywalker’ is a mixed bag to some

Star Wars hasn’t pleased all of the people all of the time arguably since the ’80s. No matter how much praise part of the story gets, some people throw  brickbats. Conversely, no matter how much negativity surrounds parts of Star Wars, people still find reasons to love them. 

Critics have been mezzo-mezzo on the ninth chapter, with the Rotten Tomatoes critical consensus reading, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker suffers from a frustrating lack of imagination, but concludes this beloved saga with fan-focused devotion.” Audiences have been kinder, scoring it an 86 percent on the same site. At the same time, opening weekend audiences gave the movie a Cinemascore of B+, which is on the low end for a Star Wars movie. 

Still, no matter how much people may debate the worthiness of the Disney Star Wars era, most fans will agree that Daisy Ridley was a gift they’re only too happy with. 

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