Going into Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, there’s one major question that fans want a definitive answer to. No, it’s not whether the Emperor’s alive again or who the Knights of Ren are (though those answers would be nice, too). It’s actually what the heck is the truth about Rey’s parentage? The Force Awakens left us with the feeling that Daisy Ridley’s heroine had some sort of important familiar connection, but The Last Jedi said she was the daughter of nobodies.
Specifically, Kylo Ren told Rey that she was of no importance as her parents were terrible people from Jakku who abandoned their child for cash. There’s long been the theory though that Kylo was just trying to break her spirit in this moment and wasn’t telling the truth and now, a leaked page from an upcoming Star Wars guide appears to prove he was lying about one important part of Rey’s backstory: she’s not actually from Jakku.
As originally shared on Reddit, this timeline of Rey’s life confirms that her parents marooned her on “the unfamiliar world of Jakku.” This description fits with a glimpse at a younger version of the character that we got in TFA. In a brief flashback, we see Rey crying out for someone – presumably her parents – as they fly away from the planet. We used to think this was her being dropped off, but TLJ‘s revelation caused us to re-interpret the scene as Rey being abandoned on her own homeworld. However, this leak seems to suggest we were right the first time.
If Rise does go so far as to retcon Kylo’s explanation away, we’ve heard it from TLJ director Rian Johnson’s own mouth that he wouldn’t mind if J.J. Abrams changes whatever he sees fit in order to conclude the trilogy in the best way possible. To be fair, Johnson retconned some of Abrams’ own storytelling decisions from TFA, so it’d only be fair if Abrams changed a few things back.
In any case, we’ve still got a while to wait until Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20th, so feel free to share your own personal theories about Rey’s parentage in the comments section down below.