As fans had theorized, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker revealed that Rey is related to Palpatine, with the heroine unveiled to be the granddaughter of the evil Emperor (which We Got This Covered told you months ago). This meant that her parents weren’t exactly the nobodies that Kylo Ren had spoken of in The Last Jedi. As he clarified in Rise, her mother and father made themselves nobodies – in his view – when they rejected Palpatine and tried to save their child from his influence, sacrificing their lives to keep her safe.
It’s specified that Rey’s dad, as played by English actor Billy Howle, is the son of Palpatine, but we’re left to wonder how he turned out to be a decent person when he had Darth Sidious for his old man. Likewise, we don’t know anything about his wife and Rey’s mother, as played by Killing Eve star Jodie Comer.
As the revelation of Rey’s heritage was kept a secret beforehand, no tie-in books or any other materials have offered up any new information about her parents, either. However, if we’re patient, all the answers could come our way in a future Star Wars movie.
According to our sources – the same ones who told us Lucasfilm is developing a Rey spinoff, which trusted insider Daniel Richtman has since corroborated – the studio wants to explore more about Palpatine’s son in a future Star Wars movie. Apparently, we’ll get to see the details surrounding his birth, how he fell in love with Rey’s mom and, ultimately, how he turned away from his own father. It’s said that Ian McDiarmid would return for the project, too, and while it’s unclear if this would be an entire film centered around the Emperor’s son or if it would just be explored in-depth in a related movie, we’re told that we’ll definitely get to see more of Rey’s dad in the future.
However this ends up coming about, though we know that his story ends in tragedy, there’s clearly still a lot of dramatic potential to mine from focusing on Rey’s father and who he was as a person. Star Wars fans love a good redemption story, too, so giving us more of this reformed son of the Sith Lord sounds like a strong idea. Further details on how this may all play out still remain hazy, but we’re told it’s certainly something Lucasfilm is keen to explore. And given these are also the same sources who informed us Deadpool 3 was in development back in October, which Ryan Reynolds finally confirmed yesterday, and that Ewan McGregor was returning as Obi-Wan way back in May, we have no reason to doubt it.
