Daisy Ridley, the star of the Star Wars sequel trilogy, has weighed in on the controversy over Rey’s parentage. With Star Wars: The Force Awakens opening the door to questions concerning the orphaned Rey’s true heritage, the entirety of the sequel trilogy offers different explanations for who her parents could be. Is she a secret lost Skywalker, the daughter of two nobodies who rose to become a skilled Force user, or truly the relative of the notorious Emperor Palpatine? In the end, it is revealed that the Palpatine theory is an accurate explanation.
The reality that Rey is related to Emperor Palpatine drew heavy criticism, as the Rey parentage reveal makes the sequel trilogy worse, as it comes so late in the trilogy that another explanation entirely — that Rey is nobody — had already become widely publicly accepted. While the trilogy focuses heavily on the question, Ridley doesn’t have the authority to determine Rey’s parentage and its ensuing controversy. In an interview with Rolling Stone, she revealed that the plan to have Rey be a nobody came from Abrams rather than Rian Johnson, as often assumed. Check out her quote below:
“Well, J.J. [Abrams] was the one who was like, she is of no one, so it wasn’t just The Last Jedi where that was the message. What was interesting about the last one, for me, was that you can be a hero and not come from anywhere or you can be a hero and come from literally the worst person in the universe. You’re not your parents, you’re not your grandparents, you’re not your bloodline and you’re not the generations before you. So, I always was like, sure. But it’s beyond my pay grade. I say the words, do the thing. I do love the version of, you can be anyone you want to be, but I also love the version where you can rectify wrongs and can’t help what you’re born into.”
Why Rey Became A Palpatine
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker reveals that Rey is the daughter of a Palpatine clone. However, future novels have created another Star Wars Rey lineage mystery, as the identity of her grandmother remains veiled. J.J. Abrams intended the Palpatine reveal to be a painful moment for Rey. Discovering that the truth she has sought for years has always been merely another tragedy for her to uncover. The reveal is a dramatic moment that wrestles with typical Star Wars ideas of lineage and disproves the concept that family is the determinant of destiny.
Yet there remains the question of why Rey needed to become a Palpatine in the first place when Star Wars: The Last Jedi already reveals the identity of her parents as two nobodies who are little more than scavengers and who abandoned Rey. Her parents being irrelevant is also originally a reveal that fits Star Wars well by showing that Rey still is not her parents, as she is critical to the future of the universe. Rey is never truly a Palpatine anyway, as her father is only Palpatine’s clone rather than his son, and the Emperor never raised her. While it is nice to have a definitive answer, it was never particularly pressing after the reveal in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
Will Rey Appear In The Star Wars Universe Again?
The current wave of Star Wars shows takes place long before Rey’s birth, centering around the rise and fall of the Empire. The Mandalorian, Andor, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka leave little room for a Rey appearance, making the character’s future shaky at best. While the Star Wars universe is moving towards a new trilogy, there is no way to know if it will revolve around Rey’s future adventures or if it will avoid her entirely. Still, a report indicates that Lucasfilm is planning a Jedi Order post-sequel trilogy, which could easily offer an opportunity for Rey to return to Star Wars.
Source: Rolling Stone