When Kylo Ren told Rey in the final third of The Last Jedi that her parents were nothing more than filthy junk traders who sold her off for drinking money, most of us assumed that the new Supreme Leader’s words were to be taken at face value, serving as a deliberate anticlimax in a film that repeatedly tests the boundaries of what a Star Wars movie can and should be. But while director Rian Johnson made it his mission to subvert viewer expectations and undermine the franchise formula, you probably shouldn’t expect a blockbuster nostalgist like J.J. Abrams to take the same divisive approach with next year’s Star Wars: Episode IX.
In fact, there’s been some speculation that The Force Awakens director plans to perform a retcon on the reveal of Rey’s parents in the sequel, presumably changing her ancestry to something more in line with the fate-based romanticism of the Star Wars films of yore.
YouTuber Mike Zeroh suggests as such with his new video, explaining that the script for Episode IX is undergoing rewrites at the same time that it’s being filmed. Rumor has it that these last-minute alterations are being made in response to the viewer backlash received by The Last Jedi, implying that Abrams is planning on addressing at least some of the problems that certain parts of the fanbase saw in last year’s release.
Zeroh singles out the issue of Rey’s parents as a potential subject of focus in the upcoming flick for a variety of reasons. For one thing, Johnson’s anti-bombshell is among the more frequently referenced sources of grief from The Last Jedi’s detractors. Moreover, Abrams himself has claimed that he had a more relevant lineage in line for Rey when he was making The Force Awakens, and even composer John Williams has reportedly said that he doesn’t believe that these Rey’s parents were mere nobodies.
It’s hard to know what to make of all this speculation quite yet, but if the brand-loyal Force Awakens was anything to go by, it’s likely that Abrams is aiming to deliver a real fan-pleaser in Star Wars: Episode IX, with the sequel scheduled for release on December 20th, 2019.
