New Star Wars: Episode IX Theory Says Rey Killed Her Parents

While the temptation of the dark side proved to be a crucial element in the Original Trilogy arc of Luke Skywalker, Rey has generally had less trouble staying on the straight and narrow. But according to this surprisingly popular fan theory, next year’s Star Wars: Episode IX could be revealing a pretty horrifying secret from the heroine’s past.

Though the notion that Daisy Ridley’s character killed her parents when she was still a child may seem very out-there, one Reddit post has apparently won over quite a few fans to the idea. For evidence, user Fromanuneasysea draws on Kylo Ren’s revelation in Star Wars: The Last Jedi that Rey’s mother and father are “dead in a pauper’s grave in the Jakku desert.”

The Redditor connects this line to a flashback in The Force Awakens, which sees Rey’s parents fly off and abandon her, and from here, the case is made that this Jedi-in-training used her inherent Force powers to down their transport and kill them in vengeance, before suppressing the traumatic memory.

According to this line of speculation, the dark twist would explain how Kylo knew the fate of Rey’s parents once the pair became psychologically connected, while also suggesting an intriguing parallel between the two of them, since Kylo also killed his father. It’s an interesting idea, but a theory this drastic should probably have a little more evidence to back it up before we start taking it seriously, especially when neither of Rey’s films have really hinted that the character holds this kind of darkness inside of her.

While predictions of flashbacks and retcons are all the rage right now when it comes to Star Wars: Episode IX speculation, there’s only so much that a filmmaker as conventional as J.J. Abrams would be willing to try with his lead heroine, and turning preteen Rey into an outright parent-killer – in a Disney movie, no less – would surely be a twist too far. Still, we’ll see if there’s anything sinister lurking behind the character’s principled facade when the pic hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.