Movies

'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Will Address Rey's Parentage, Though Maybe Not Definitively

Who Are Rey's Parents
By Ethan Anderton

Perhaps the biggest mystery leftover from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with the exception of Luke Skywalker's recent past, is the question regarding the identity of Rey's parents. Fans have debated and theorized as to whether she's the daughter of Luke Skywalker, the estranged daughter of Han Solo and Leia Organa, a descendant of Obi-Wan Kenobi, the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine or some random girl who just so happens to be Force sensitive. Thankfully, it sounds like that mystery will be addressed in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Here's an interview clip where director Rian Johnson was asked whether we find out who are Rey's parents:

For those who can't watch the video, director Rian Johnson is at first leery about saying anything about Rey's parents, but then responds cautiously and cryptically, "It's something that's going to be addressed in the movie." When the interviewer follows up by asking if there would be clarification as to whose Rey's parents are, Johnson starts to answer, "It depends on – I can't say. I was about to say something. You almost got me!"

Johnson fell back to repeating, "It will absolutely be addressed in the movie. It's tough, because this is the other element of the secrecy of it all. There are lots of surprises in this movie. There [are] lots of twists and turns, and I really want people to experience those when they see the movie for the first time. How we address that and how you feel about it and what happens with that is one of them."

There's no real way to discern what that means yet, but it's almost as if Rey's parentage doesn't have an easy explanation as most fans have though. Perhaps when Rian says her parentage will be addressed, he means that we'll learn about who they are without necessarily finding out specifically who they are.

star wars the last jedi trailer 4 rey

One interesting tidbit that supports that train of thought came from an interview with Daisy Ridley at Star Wars Celebreation this weekend, which further indicates that we might not learn exactly who Rey's parents are in this movie, though they will be addressed in some form. Speaking with MTV, Ridley was asked about her reaction when she found out who Rey's parents were. She thinks for a moment and then responds:

"The one thing I have seen, because I did some ADR last week and saw a clip of something that I didn't know was going to happen in it. I was like 'Oh, wow. Okay.' I think quite a few questions that people have are answered in this."

That tells us literally nothing about who Rey's parents are, but it does tell us that Daisy Ridley may not yet be privy to the identity of her character's parents. If she did ADR (automatic dialogue replacement, or looping) for a clip that she hadn't seen, then it sounds like there's a scene that she didn't appear in but has some kind of voiceover part in it. That means this could be some kind of revealing Force vision or a flashback of some sort where the audience learns something about Rey's past as she talks about it, but maybe she didn't fully understand as a child.

One theory that seems to have gone out the window at this point is Rey being Luke's daughter. In another interview with Fandango, Daisy Ridley confirmed that Luke has no idea who Rey is. That doesn't guarantee that she's not Luke's daughter, but that seems rather unlikely, especially since Mark Hamill even made a remark "accidentally" referring to Daisy Ridley as his daughter during The Last Jedi panel before changing his tune. It was an intentionally made joke, and if that were true, he likely wouldn't make a joke about it, despite it being a funny way of fueling the fan theories and keeping the mystery intact.

As of now, I'm thinking that maybe we learn that Rey was orphaned at a young age, but we don't know where she came from before that. Maybe Rey doesn't even know who her real family is and that's a mystery she'll have to uncover herself with the rest of us. At this point, anything is possible, and we'll just have to suffer for another seven months before we get the answer.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives on December 15.

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