Movies

Daisy Ridley Says 'Star Wars' Toyed With Rey's Parentage, Including Making Her A Kenobi

rey kenobi
By Hoai-Tran Bui

Rey Kenobi? That might have been the true parentage of Rey revealed in Star Wars: Episode IX, according to Daisy Ridley, who revealed that the Star Wars teams toyed with several ideas for Rey's origins before settling on making her the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine. But "an Obi-Wan connection" was one of the front-runners before the idea on Rey's parentage had been decided on, which Ridley revealed was not even set in stone while she was filming Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

In an interview with Josh Gad on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Ridley divulged the behind-the-scenes details of filming the Star Wars sequel trilogy, which she revealed were constantly in flux. The biggest, most frequently changing detail? Rey's parentage. The origins of the powerful Jakku scavenger were teased in The Force Awakens, but Ridley reveals that even after she was revealed to be "no one" in The Last Jedi, the filmmakers (i.e. J.J. Abrams) kept changing their mind on Rey's parentage:

"At the beginning, there was toying with an Obi-Wan connection. There were different versions, and then it really went to 'she was no one.' And then it came to Episode IX and J.J. pitched me the film and was like, 'Oh yeah, Palpatine's granddaughter,' and I was like, 'Awesome.' And two weeks later he was like, 'Oh, we're not sure...' So he kept changing. Even while filming, I wasn't sure what the answer was going to be."

The idea that Rey might have been the descendent (Daughter? Granddaughter? Niece?) of Obi-Wan Kenobi is certainly not an unheard of idea, as the popular theory was floated around back when The Force Awakens came out in 2015. It would have brought the Skywalker Saga full circle as well, with one Kenobi finally managing to save a Skywalker from the Dark Side after Obi-Wan had failed with Anakin.

Whether you like the reveal that Rey was a granddaughter of Palpatine via a failed clone is up to you, but the real frustrating thing to come out of Ridley's comments is that Abrams allowed the actress to perform the role — especially the final scenes in which Rey grapples with being a Palpatine — without knowing the final decision on her origins. The lack of overall story arc planning has been a staple of Star Wars since George Lucas made things up as he went with the original trilogy, but this is just lazy on Abrams' part.

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