Daisy Ridley: Rey Is Not Satisfied With ‘Last Jedi’ Answer About Her Parents
Zack Sharf
Like it or not, the mystery of Rey’s parents will be reopened in the upcoming “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” The question of Rey’s parentage was raised by “The Force Awakens” and seemingly answered in “The Last Jedi” when Kylo Ren told Rey her parents were “filthy junk traders who sold you off for drinking money.” The reveal suggested Rey was not a Skywalker or a Kenobi as some “Force Awakens” fan theories predicted. Was Kylo Ren lying? Maybe, but diehard fans of “The Last Jedi” were surely hoping J.J. Abrams would let the mystery remain solved in “The Rise of Skywalker.” That’s not happening. Abrams said in April that “there is more to the story [of Rey’s parentage] than you’ve seen,” and now Daisy Ridley tells Entertainment Weekly something similar.
“The parents thing is not satisfied — for her and for the audience,” Ridley said of Rey’s journey in “The Rise of Skywalker. “That’s something she’s still trying to figure out — where does she come from? It’s not that she doesn’t believe [Kylo’s answer], but she feels there’s more to the story. And she needs to figure out what’s come before so she can figure out what to do next.”
How “The Rise of Skywalker” handles Rey’s parentage is already a point of contention for “Star Wars” fans. Some fans loved what Rian Johnson did in “The Last Jedi,” since making Rey’s parents a pair of nobodies upended fan expectations and reinforced a “Star Wars” ideal that heroes can come from anywhere. “The Last Jedi” critics, however, continue to cling to the notion that Rey must come from an important lineage and hope “Rise of Skywalker” reveals her deeper connections to the “Star Wars” mythology. Will Rey’s parents be revealed to be a big deal after all? It’s one of the biggest questions now facing the final Skywalker saga entry.
Whether or not “Rise of Skywalker” goes back on “The Last Jedi” reveal remains to be seen, but it’s likely that Rey will at least be seeking out the answer to why her parents abandoned her on Jakku in the first place. The first “Rise of Skywalker” trailer included a shot of a spaceship flying towards a city on a blue-tinted, rocky planet. The ship looks almost identical to the one Rey’s parents were seen flying away in during Rey’s force flashback trip in “Force Awakens.” Expect answers in “Rise of Skywalker.”
Disney is opening “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” in theaters nationwide December 20.
