Will We Find out Rey’s Parentage in Star Wars: The Last Jedi?
While there was news this week that Adam Driver may have let slip a major spoiler for Star Wars: The Last Jedi concerning Rey’s (Daisy Ridley) parentage, we have assiduously avoided the topic to spare you any unwanted knowledge. What we can tell you is that writer/director Rian Johnson, while somewhat slippery on the topic (as he must be), has made it clear in the past that Rey’s parentage would be addressed eventually. Where (and from who) Rey came from was arguably the prime mystery in The Force Awakens, after the location of Luke Skywalker, and finding out the answer is clearly one of the tasks that either Johnson, or J.J. Abrams in Episode IX, will need to address. Now, in a new interview with Ridley, the actress teases that the answer to this question might be coming very soon.
The interview was by Yahoo Japan, and unless you can read Japanese, we’ll have to trust the translation that Slashfilm put together. Here’s the pertinent quote:
As for the relationship between Luke and Leia, a popular theory has come to be that the two were incestuous siblings. Daisy, who had said clarification on that theory would come in The Last Jedi, had this to say: ‘Whatever the answer, I just hope that the moment everyone finds out is an enjoyable experience for viewers.’ She continued, ‘And, though I have known the answer for several years now, the series that Rian Johnson created has turned out to be spectacular beyond even my imagination. To be honest, I was very moved. I think it will be a moving moment for everyone else as well.’
Now you can be almost certain there is no incestuous sibling stuff going on in Star Wars. That kind of relationship, as far as massively popular entertainment is concerned, will likely stay in the realm of Game of Thrones for now. What Ridley is at least confirming is that the answer is coming, she’s known about it for ‘several years,’ meaning this isn’t ‘we’ll figure it out later’ scenario, as Darth Vader being Luke’s father was (yup, look it up), but rather something the Star Wars team (Abrams, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, Johnson, etc.) have known about since probably Abrams was fleshing out The Force Awakens script with Lawrence Kasdan and others.
Johnson himself has gone quiet on whether or not we’ll definitively find out the answer in The Last Jedi. Ridley promises that we’ll be ‘moved’ once we find out, but that could happen in Episode IX. The obvious money, which leads us to believe it’s probably not right, is that Ridley is either Leia and Han’s kid, or Luke’s, but both of these scenarios present problems. First, why was she left on the desert planet Jakku to essentially fend for herself as a scavenger? Was that Luke’s way of protecting her from the same fate Kylo Ren suffered? But then again, she and Ren are near-ish to the same age, no? And if she is Luke’s daughter, who is her mother, and where is she? Her facility with the Force definitely leans in Luke’s direction, but for the revelation to be truly satisfying, we’ll have to find out who her mother is, and feel connected to this person in some way. If she’s Leia and Han’s kid, it gives her battle with Kylo Ren even more resonance, upending the Luke and Leia sibling teamwork of the first trilogy for a sibling battle, an intriguing conceit, but hardly surprising.
Maybe we’ll find out when The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15 and be both surprised and moved. You can always go looking for Driver’s statement (and there’s no promise he’s actually revealed anything), but this seems like the kind of mystery you want solved only one way; on the big screen.
Featured image: Daisy Ridley as Rey in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Courtesy Lucasfilm/Walt Disney Studios
