In this article we’re gonna be going over one of the biggest mysteries that has surrounded the Star Wars saga since the release of The Force Awakens back in 2015.
That is the true identity of Rey’s parents.
Throughout this, I’m gonna be breaking down the best fan theories as well as what the recently released leaks reveal about the character’s true lineage.
Due to the nature of this there is potentially heavy spoilers here and whilst all leaks like this should be taken with a pinch of salt, if they turn out to be true then it may ruin the movie for you. I will leave those till last so if you just wanna stick with the fan theories I’ll give you another heads up before we get to them.
Anyway with that out the way I just wanna give a huge thank you for clicking this video, now let’s get into our breakdown of who Rey’s parents are.
They Are Nobodies
Ok so the first theory is that Rey’s parents are indeed nobodies that abandoned her on Jakku.
This is due to the line that Kylo says in The Force Awakens in which the character states:
“They were filthy junk traders; sold you off for drinking money. They’re dead, in a pauper’s grave in the Jakku desert. You have no place in this story. You come from nothing,”
Whilst this is definitely likely and the evidence is there to support it, in a recent interview with ABC JJ Abrhams said the following when discussing her lineage:
“I will say that we knew going into this, that this movie, it had to be a satisfying conclusion. And we were well aware that [the discussion surrounding Rey’s parents is] one of the things that’s been out there. I don’t want to say that what happens in Episode VIII [didn’t happen,] We have honored that. But I will say that there’s more to the story than you’ve seen.”
So it does indeed seem like they may be sticking with the original point put across in The Last Jedi but that they will be building upon it in several interesting ways. We have seen throughout the Star Wars franchise in the case of Anakin that it is possible for paupers and peasants to become massively important in the Galaxy and the force isn’t prejudiced when it comes to picking people that will have great power with it. Rey’s parents could indeed be nobodies and she could just happen to be lucky, able to wield the force in the way that she does without any training due to her natural abilities.
However, if this does turn out to be true it seems slightly against JJ’s original vision and we can guess from the comments that he made that the creator does indeed have a few tricks up his sleeve. I thought I’d put this in first as it’s the one that we pretty much all know about but the list definitely gets more interesting the further we get into it.
Han Solo’s Daughter
The next theory that seems to be picking up a lot of steam is that Rey is actually Han Solo’s daughter but to make matters more complicated, she’s not Leias and is, in fact, the child of Qi’ra from Solo A Star Wars Story.
The theory states that Solo and Qi’ra had a child together and after the latter got in too deep with Gangsters she fled to Jakku with her new partner where they were eventually tracked down and killed, thus leaving Rey on her own.
This makes a lot of sense and definitely ties in with some of the lore thus far, retroactively making Solo a better movie and Rey more tied to the franchise than previously thought.
If Rey’s parents were indeed paupers and junk traders then this ties in with Qi’ra who definitely lived a life of poverty and crime. She also has no qualms about cutting people off even the ones that she loves and in Solo a Star Wars story we get just how cutthroat that she is when she abandons Han in the close of the movie.
This would also add a lot of weight to why Han took such a shine to Rey on their first meeting and who knows, maybe he say something in her that reminded him of the woman he lost all those years ago.
However, it would mean that Qi’ra was either pregnant and gave birth to a child before she met back up with Han in the movie or that the two bumped into each other once more after the events of the film. If this is the case then it means that Rey and Kylo are actually half-sister and brother and that Kylo actually killed her true father, making him a much bigger threat in her eyes.
I don’t know if this theory will turn out to be true but it actually sounds like a pretty cool one that nicely ties the spin-off in more with the main universe. It would be devastating for Rey to know that she had actually found her father but was robbed of this relationship by Kylo and out of all of the theories that there is out there, this is one of my favorites.
Han And Leia
Mirroring this is the theory that she may even be the secret child of Han and Leia and this would explain how she is so powerful with the force. There’s actually precedent for this already in the Star Wars universe as in the original Expanded works that were released before the sequel saga wiped the slate clean, Han and Leia’s had two children, one named Jacen and the other named Jaina who were both strong Jedi. Jacen ended up turning to the Dark side and this put the two into conflict in a battle that spanned the Galaxy.
Where this falls down though is that Leia has spent a lot of time with Rey and surely due to her force sensitivity she would begin to suspect that they were related. Kylo mentions nothing of a long lost sister and the two parents don’t really seem like the kind of people that would ditch their daughter, especially with how much effort they have both put in to saving Kylo from walking down a dark path.
This theory would be fun but I think it’s a little too tied to the original series and it just doesn’t feel like the big twist that there really should be for the character who has went so long agonising over who her true parents really are.
Whilst all the theories mentioned thus far have been things that would be pretty cool little reveals, the final theory may just blow your mind.
SPOILER ALERT REGARDING THE LEAKS
Are you still here? Ok good!
So the leaks that were recently released by Reddit user JediPaxis. They have gotten numerous leaks right thus far including C-3P0s red eyes long before the previous trailer released as well as the return of Palpatine before we ever heard that instantly recognisable cackle in the trailer.
Anyway the user has said that in the upcoming film, Kylo maintains that while her parents are nobodies, her grandparents (more specifically her grandfather) isn’t. In a big twist of fate, Kylo tells Rey that she is the granddaughter of Palpatine and that he has been watching her for a long long time. This explains his interest in bringing the random nobody from Jakku into the fold and also why she is so strong with the force.
It also adds weight to why when she was training to be a Jedi, her mind tended to wander to the Dark Side and this may be her grandfather’s influence. This is a theory that has floated about online now for the past four years and it definitely seems to have a lot of fans behind it.
Palpatine Is Rey’s Grandfather
Everything from her Imperial Accent to her Lightsaber fighting style seems to line up with the things that he would have instilled in his children who then instilled it in her. Palpatine is definitely the kind of guy to cast his offspring to the side if they didn’t live up to expectation and perhaps Rey’s parent who was the child of ol’Palpy was cast to the side after they were clearly unconnected from the force.
Perhaps, similar to how many theorize that Palpatine manipulated the midichlorians to create life like he did with Anakin, Palpatine could have done the same with Rey’s mother and therefore created a new, exetremly powerful Jedi who he sees as the next one to carry the torch.
The leaks also state that Palpatine’s plan in The Rise Of The Skywalker is to build anger in Rey to the point that she lashes out and takes him down in the same stroke, taking his place as the ruler of the empire and a new dark force in the Universe. This is backed up by the images that show Rey as a Sith and whilst they are definitely a vision of what could come to pass, it makes sense that Palpatine would be manipulating her in this way to turn to the dark side. He clearly has no qualms about dying in order to create a new dark lord and in Return Of The Jedi we watched as he taunted Luke in order to get him to strike him down and take his place.
It’s definitely a really interesting idea and if this is the big reveal in the movie then I have to admit, I won’t be disappointed. I’ve already done a full breakdown of all the leaks if this has piqued your interest but yeah, sign me up to the idea of Pimp Palpatine that went through the Galaxy having kids in order to bring them up to be the rulers of the galaxy.
Either that or Qi’ra JJ anyone will do, just please, don’t ruin Star Wars anymore, we are begging you!
Your Thoughts
Now obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on who you think Rey’s parents are and which one of the theories that you like the best. Comment below and let me know!
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