When The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams handed over the keys to the Star Wars saga to Rian Johnson, he probably wasn’t anticipating the subversive new territory that his successor would take the series in with The Last Jedi. And now that Abrams is back in the game with Star Wars: Episode IX, you can imagine that the filmmaker may be feeling a little torn between staying true to Johnson’s polarizing vision and following through on his own ideas for the story.
In particular, while Abrams seemingly thought he was laying the groundwork for some grand reveal regarding Rey’s parents, Johnson instead offered the deliberately anticlimactic twist that her mom and dad were nothing more than filthy junk traders who sold her off for drinking money. But according to a recent leak, Abrams could be retconning this reveal for a more conventionally heroic line of ancestry.
According to some newly leaked Episode IX intel, concept art for the upcoming trilogy-closer shows a young Rey sitting by a fire on Jakku at night. With her is a man in a beige hood seen hugging the orphan child. In the next image, we can reportedly see this mysterious figure without his hood, and he’s shown to have “long brown hair tied in a ponytail that ends up the upper back. Clean shaven and waving at Rey before hopping on his speeder and leaving Rey.”
While this description doesn’t exactly spell it out, this hooded character sure sounds a lot like a Jedi, and with the affection he shows for Rey, it’s not hard to see how some are speculating that the man is actually her father.
Of course, assuming that this leak is even legit, the relationship between Rey and this man might not be so clear cut. After all, Abrams still has to take into account the reveal from The Last Jedi, making it a distinct possibility that this new character is more of a father figure than a biological parent. Though this is hardly the first time that a more important line of ancestry has been theorized for Rey, Abrams may well feel some obligation to honor the twist that Johnson left him to contend with.
In any case, we’ll see what the director has in mind for the final installment of this divisive trilogy when Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.
