In 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson shocked us all when it came to Rey’s parentage with the revelation that they were, in fact, “nobody,” or as Kylo Ren put it, they were just “filthy junk traders” who sold her in an effort to get some drinking money. But with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker due to drop later this year, director J.J. Abrams has already teased that he’ll revisit the plot thread, and plans to somehow expand on the twist.
What exactly he’s got in store for us remains to be seen, but a juicy new rumor doing the rounds may’ve let the cat out of the bag. You see, over on Making Star Wars’ Patreon podcast, the outlet claims that Rey’s father is actually none other than Han Solo. But her mother isn’t Leia, as Han had an affair with another woman.
Here’s how one of the podcast’s listeners on Reddit broke it down for those who weren’t able to tune in for themselves:
Rey is Han Solo’s daughter. But she is not Leia Organa’s daughter–and therefore is not a Skywalker. Leia and Han were estranged when she began training with Luke. When she did not complete that training she returned to Han, but Ben Solo knew of the affair (although not necessarily about Rey), and began acting out, and this was when he was sent to Luke.
If true, this could explain a few things. For one, being half-siblings might explain Kylo and Rey’s connection that they share with one another, while Han being Rey’s father would also explain her piloting abilities. And as for Kylo telling Rey her parents were nobodies, well, perhaps he was referring to her adoptive parents and not her real ones?
In any case, we’ll be filing this one firmly in the rumor cabinet for now, but it’ll certainly be interesting to see what Abrams has planned and if he can continue to explore the character’s roots without watering down the message of The Last Jedi. While the humble origins of Rey might’ve gone against the franchise’s old mentality that being a great hero was a matter of winning the birth lottery, making Han Solo her father and revealing that he had an affair while married to Leia might not be the best route to head down in Episode IX, for a number of reasons which we won’t get into right now.
Either way, though, we’ll find out soon enough who Rey’s real parents are, as on December 20th, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker lights up theaters across the world and will bring an end to the Skywalker Saga.