In 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rian Johson defied all the speculation around Rey’s parentage with the revelation that they were, in fact, “nobody,” or as Kylo Ren put it, they were a pair of “filthy junk traders” who sold her off for drinking money. But with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker due to drop later this year, director J.J. Abrams has hinted that he’ll revisit this plot thread, and somehow expand on the twist.
In an interview with ABC News, Abrams was asked if we’re going to find out who Rey’s parents are in the upcoming flick, to which he replied:
“I will say that we knew, going into this, that this movie, it had to be a satisfying conclusion. And we were well aware that that’s one of the things that’s been out there. I don’t want to say that what happens in Episode 8 [didn’t happen]. We have honored that. But I will say that there’s more to the story than you’ve seen.”
After the release of The Last Jedi, actor Simon Pegg claimed that Abrams had ideas of “a relevant lineage” for Rey when he worked on The Force Awakens. But while Johnson’s twist may not have been what Abrams had in mind for the heroine, it doesn’t sound like he’s planning to do an outright retcon of the reveal.
Whatever Abrams has lined up for Rey, it’ll be interesting to see if he can continue to explore the character’s roots without watering down the message of The Last Jedi. While the humble origins of Daisy Ridley’s character challenged the franchise’s old mentality that being a great hero was a matter of winning the birth lottery, connecting Rey’s parents to the wider saga would arguably nullify Johnson’s more democratic vision of the Force.
Incidentally, the recent title reveal for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has already got fans wondering if Rey is part of the Skywalker bloodline after all. Granted, that’s just one of many ways of interpreting this deliberately ambiguous title, but all will be revealed when the film hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.
