There’s been a lot of fan discussion concerning how the reveal of Rey’s true heritage was handled throughout the Sequel Trilogy. In The Last Jedi, the heroine was memorably told by Kylo Ren that her parents were “nobodies” who sold her into slavery for money. In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, though, we discover that wasn’t the case. Her parents actually left their daughter on Jakku in a noble attempt to protect her from the clutches of her evil grandfather – Emperor Palpatine.
The retcon away from TLJ‘s explanation has to be one of the more controversial aspects of TROS and in a new interview with GQ, co-writer Chris Terrio defended the decision. He revealed that he and director J.J. Abrams felt that leaving the question with that answer was “too easy” and they needed to dig deeper into Rey’s hunger for the truth after being abandoned for so many years.
“Well, we weren’t convinced that it had been cleared up, because there’s still this highly troubling vision that Rey had in Episode VII, which is the shop with her parents leaving the planet. Also, the events of The Last Jedi are literally just after the events of Episode VII—within 48 hours, Rey has had a force-back to her parents and then the very next day is told ‘your parents were no one and they were junk traders. None of that matters.’ And we thought in a way that would be too easy because of the idea that Rey had been longing for her parents for so many years. We just felt like there was something more going on.”
You can understand Terrio’s point that he and Abrams thought there was more drama to mine from this situation, seeing as the mystery surrounding her past had been such a key element of Rey’s character. Likewise, it makes sense that Abrams would want to directly address Rey’s vision of her parents that he included in The Force Awakens, which was one major dangling thread not touched on in TLJ.Â
However, Terrio’s wording has only inflamed Last Jedi fans, with some accusing him of either criticizing writer/director Rian Johnson’s take or misinterpreting it in the first place. His “too easy” description is ironic as well considering that Johnson’s explained he wanted to find the toughest revelation for Rey to face and thought the fact that her family means nothing would be the most difficult to stomach. Clearly, both sets of filmmakers were coming at it from the same angle but arrived at separate conclusions.
Tell us, though, how do you feel about Rey being Palpatine’s descendant in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker? Sound off in the comments section down below.
