In December of this year, The Rise of Skywalker, the third installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy will celebrate its four-year anniversary. The film was notable for answering that glaring question. Who is Rey? Where did she come from? In an interview with The Rolling Stone, Daisy Ridley has offered to clear the air on certain issues surrounding her fearless character.
Rey’s parentage was a big mystery first introduced in The Force Awakens, where we first meet Rey and learn of her mysterious force sensitive powers. Fans were speculating up a storm. Was Rey a lost Skywalker child? Perhaps even a Kenobi? The answer was seemingly discovered in the follow-up, The Last Jedi, which Rey was… nobody! That’s right, Rey’s parents were said to have had no blood-ties to any major Star Wars figureheads. Then The Rise of Skywalker came out, revealing that Rey was actually the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine.
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This reveal caused a notable split in the Star Wars fans, with many accusing The Rise of Skywalker for retconning the previous film in order to satisfy unhappy fans. Some also pointed accusations at director J.J. Abrams himself for the creative choices. Ridley has stepped forward to hopefully clear some of the dust. Her answer?
And there it is, straight from Ridley herself. Is Rey a nobody? Is Rey a Palpatine? Is Rey a Skywalker? So long as the message rings true, why can’t she be all of them?
“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.”
How Ridley Survived Star Wars
While Star Wars fans were eating up the sequel trilogy, many of them look back on the films with a bad taste, namely in how the fandom treated the actors fortunate enough to step into the galaxy far, far away. John Boyega has since been very open about his own treatment from both the fandom and Disney, and stated that he feels no need to reprise his role as Finn. Ridley shared that her way of dealing with the drama was to just not look or engage.
This is what Ridley advises to other female Star Wars actors. With two upcoming shows, Ahsoka and The Acolyte, being female-led; the future of Star Wars continues to push more progressively. Ridley has also stated that she would be open to returning to Star Wars. Though only time will tell if we ever see Rey’s grand return anytime soon.
The funny thing is, because I don’t read stuff and wasn’t on social media for a while, when I was referring to how people can have big opinions about it, random people in the street would be so open with their opinions and I would be like, I’m good. I don’t need to hear that. Cool. Great. As a person, whether I liked a film or not, I would never go up to a person and go, “I hated your film.” Because I’m a human being. It was probably more gendered than I was aware of.
