When she was announced as the lead in “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” few fans had heard of Daisy Ridley, the British star cast to play Jedi-in-training Rey. A true up-and-comer, Ridley had few roles under her belt at the time, most of which were small — sometimes non-speaking — parts in single episodes of UK television shows like “Casualty,” “Toasts of London,” and “Mr. Selfridge.” With a major role in a blockbuster movie series, most probably pegged Ridley to become Hollywood’s next big British import.

Unfortunately, since leading the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy, though, Daisy Ridley has struggled to find successful projects to star in. Her biggest film since 2015 has been “Murder on the Orient Express,” the first movie she shot after “The Force Awakens.” In the eight years since, however, it’s been flop after flop. In fact, most of her more recent films haven’t even received wide releases. Her biggest role was the critically derided post-apocalyptic sci-fi action movie “Chaos Walking,” while her lesser projects were box office bombs like “Sometimes I Think About Dying,” “Magpie,” and “Young Woman and the Sea” — movies few people saw, and even fewer have heard of.

In 2025, however, her latest project, “Cleaner,” is turning heads. While it wasn’t a barn burner at the box office and flew under most people’s radar when it was released in cinemas — probably because it too failed to receive a wide release — it’s suddenly doing big numbers on Netflix.

Released more widely in Ridley’s native United Kingdom, “Cleaner” barely scraped together $400,000 in the U.S., so it’s no surprise that most people stateside were unfamiliar with it. But now that it’s on Netflix, it’s finally finding its audience, and people are raving about it. It’s even entered Netflix’s Top 10 movies, months after it flopped in theaters.

Directed by “Goldeneye” helmer Martin Campbell, “Cleaner” features Ridley in the role of Joey Locke, a former British Special Forces agent who now works as a window cleaner after quitting the service. While she’s on the job with her brother in tow, a group of violent radicals called Earth Revolution — led by a ruthless madman played by Clive Owen — execute a deadly assault on the building where Locke is working. With her brother caught in the crossfire, the former soldier takes it upon herself to stop the carnage and thwart the terrorists’ takeover.

Despite a modest 52% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, the movie’s success on Netflix has led to a much higher audience rating. Likened to a modern-day “Die Hard,” fans are praising the movie’s solid action sequences and surprising twists and turns. It even reached the top of Netflix’s rankings, peaking at #1, putting Ridley back in the spotlight and giving fans a tantalizing glimpse of what could have been had she continued on the career trajectory many had predicted after “The Force Awakens.”

Since “The Force Awakens,” Ridley hasn’t had the best run of movie luck, but if “Cleaner” reaching #1 on Netflix proves anything, it’s that audiences are willing to tune on to watch her in something great. With so many flops on her resume, it seemed like Tinseltown had moved on from her. But could this movie’s success on streaming turn heads in Hollywood and get her back into the spotlight?

In 2023, fans learned that Ridley would return to a galaxy far, far away when it was announced at Star Wars Celebration that she would lead a new “Star Wars” film — and possibly a series of them — centered on her character, Rey, as she works to rebuild the Jedi order. As of 2025, however, the project is rumored to have been put on hold as Disney and Lucasfilm continue to struggle with how best to revive “Star Wars” at the theater. With Ridley back in the news with a hit on streaming, it’s possible that the decision-makers could rethink the project yet again, as fans are showing that they want to see the young actor back on their screens. At the very least, “Cleaner” could mark a shift for Ridley, as studios finally recognize that her star power and talent can combine with a solid idea to make a movie that people love.