Daisy Ridley Kisses Pedro Pascal In ‘The Bubble’ In An Uncomfortable ‘Star Wars’ Crossover

Warning: This article contains The Bubble spoilers. If you care about that sort of thing, save this to read until after you’ve seen the movie.

Yes, that is Daisy Ridley kissing Pedro Pascal in The Bubble, the new Judd Apatow pandemic comedy that is now streaming on Netflix. That is also James McAvoy tackling Karen Gillan to the ground, John Cena on the iPad teaching the Cliff Beasts cast stunts, and Beck performing a concert to boost morale. Basically, there is no shortage of The Bubble celebrity cameos.

But it’s the Daisy Ridley cameo in The Bubble that is sure to get Star Wars fans talking, given that it’s essentially a kiss between Mando and Rey. (What a crossover!) Of course, both Pascal and Ridley are playing very different characters than their Star Wars counterparts. In The Bubble, Pascal stars as Dieter Bravo, a self-serious movie actor who is part of the ensemble cast of the fictional action franchise, Cliff Beasts. Though it’s the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s a lot of money at stake, so the production of Cliff Beasts 6 will go on. For safety, the cast is put in a “bubble” at a fancy hotel, with quarantine and testing protocols in place. Cut off from the rest of the world, these fictional A-listers start to come undone.

For Pascal’s character Dieter, that comes in the form of feverish sexual frustration. The pretty hotel clerk Anika (Maria Bakalova) refuses to sleep with him because she believes they are destined for an epic romance. Dieter attempts to work out his feelings via a Peloton-esque workout, led by a ripped, upbeat virtual instructor named Kate. And that instructor is played by none other than Star Wars star Daisy Ridley.

Right away, Dieter gives himself over to the Peloton cult. When Kate, with a chipper smile on her face, asks if he’s ready to “start a new day with new habits,” Dieter replies, a note of desperation in his voice, “Change me! Change me!”

It doesn’t take long for the tone of the workout to change. Kate addresses Dieter directly and starts flirting with him. Then she suggests the next exercise: “I’d like you to enter me for 30 thrusts. Let’s do that 10 times, and continue until I say we’re done,” she commands, suddenly aggressive.

“That’s a lot of sets,” Dieter replies uneasily.

Things pretty much deteriorate from there. Dieter, in a pre-flu state of fever dreaming, imagines Kate’s face coming out of the Peloton screen. He approaches her, and the two share a deeply uncomfortable kiss.

Sure, both Ridley and Pascal are hilarious, but this is Rey and Mando. Rey’s been through a lot, but she still seems like a teenager from Jakku to me. And Mando is a devoted father these days. This is worse than the Rey and Kylo Ren kiss in The Rise of Skywalker. The scene ends there, though Ridley makes one more appearance during the movie’s “two years later” epilogue, as one of two dates that Dieter brought to his movie premiere red carpet. “I have no idea why I’m here,” Ridley tells the red carpet reporter.

There are quite a few other cameos in The Bubble, including a surprise concert from the musician Beck and an appearance from John Cena on an iPad as the woefully inadequate Cliff Beasts stunt coordinator. But though it won’t get the same buzz from the Star Wars fandom, perhaps the funniest cameo is James McAvoy, who appears at the end of the movie as himself.

At a breaking point, Karen Gillan’s character, a Cliff Beasts actor named Carol, makes a run for it while on set. James McAvoy, who happens to be at the studio for a different project, sees Carol running, and takes it upon himself to chase Carol down and tackle her to the ground.

“Why do you care if I’m running?” she asks him, incredulous.

“I don’t know what you’re up to!” he replies with his native Scottish accent. “You could have stolen something! I really don’t think you’re allowed to run during a pandemic.”

It’s so silly, but it’s one of the few genuine laughs The Bubble got out of me. Cast James McAvoy in more comedies, please.

Watch The Bubble on Netflix