Crushingly Plausible 'Star Wars: Episode 9' Theory Unmasks Rey's Parents
After Star Wars: The Force Awakens took great pains to establish the mystery of Rey's parentage, Rian Johnson came along with Star Wars: The Last Jedi and created one of the all-time best mic drop moments in the franchise's history: Rey's parents are nobodies. It was a reveal that clearly removed the film's heroine from a famous family lineage, making it clear that heroes don't need a specific last name to be one of the most important figures in a galaxy far, far away.
But this new Star Wars Episode 9 theory may have found a way for writer/director J.J. Abrams to reverse that reveal and make Rey's parents two characters with whom audiences are already very familiar. In the words of Alec Guinness's Obi-Wan Kenobi, "I fear something terrible has happened."
Film Threat's Star Wars Episode 9 Theory
If you don't have time to watch the video, here's the gist: according to this theory (and again, it's just a theory), Rey is the daughter of Han Solo and Qi'ra, Emilia Clarke's character from Solo: A Star Wars Story. The theory says that this "fixes everything" because it would provide exactly the kind of rhyming echoes in the Skywalker saga that George Lucas placed throughout the first two trilogies.
If Han and Qi'ra are Rey's parents, that means that Rey and Kylo Ren are half-siblings, sort of mirroring Luke and Leia's relationship. Plus, this would mean that Kylo and Rey both come from the same father and a mother who's connected with the opposite side of the Force.
Rey/Light Side : Qi'ra/Dark Side
Kylo/Dark Side : Leia/Light Side
A Speeder Bike Zip Down Memory Lane
There have been conflicting reports about Rey's parents all over the internet: Daisy Ridley says she thought she knew who her character's parents were during the making of The Force Awakens, we heard that J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson ultimately came to the same conclusion about the parents independently of each other, and then Simon Pegg revealed yet another shade to the story. "I know what JJ kind of intended or at least was being chucked around. I think that's kind of been undone slightly by the last one. There was some talk of a relevant lineage for [Rey]," Pegg said. Adam Driver even complicated matters even further by once saying that Rey was a princess.
This theory would certainly fall into that "relevant lineage" that Abrams had in mind, although Pegg seemed to indicate that the idea had been scrapped due to the events of The Last Jedi.
Why This Is A Terrible Idea
First of all, retconning Rey's parentage like this would completely undermine the thematic message of The Last Jedi, which is to not let the past define you. Pulling the story back toward Han and Qi'ra (a person who, remember, has only appeared in one movie thus far – one that was apathetically received on a commercial and critical level) would be a big step backward, and it would remove one of the best aspects of Rey's character – that she doesn't have need a famous name to save the galaxy. It's a slap in the face to the previous entry in the franchise.
It would also continue Disney's pattern of making this huge galaxy even smaller. There are billions of people and aliens in this universe – you're telling me that yet another important character is related to a Skywalker? Gimme a break. And finally, this would put the focus back on mystery instead of the characters and the story. There is a place for pulling the rug out from under the audience and reframing things we've already seen, but when the backbone of the entire second movie in a trilogy was built on that specific decision, wiping it out would seem childish and petty. Abrams is better than that.
Parting Words
I want to end by repeating one final time that this is all just a fan theory for now. Part of the reason backlashes happen with big pop culture properties is because fans often get attached to theories like these, building up the entire movie in their minds based on little whiffs of educated guesses. Then, if it doesn't play out exactly the way they foresaw, people have can become furious and take it out on the movie itself, which is totally unfair. It's fun to speculate about all of this, but when people attach their entire mental well-being to a fan theory, well...that's when things go wrong.
If things go poorly, we could be seeing a fan film that addresses Episode 9 controversies in a couple of years in the same vein as this video. And since that short film is modeled after Rian Johnson's debut film Brick, this new one would need to be modeled after Abrams' feature debut, which was...Mission: Impossible 3. On second thought, that actually sounds kind of awesome. Bring on the controversies!