There has been a debate going on between Star Wars fans, ever since the first showing of The Force Awakens about the identity of Rey’s (Daisy Ridley) parents. Some have speculated that it is Luke Skywalker, while others have tried to prove that she is actually the daughter of Han and Leia. So, who are Rey’s parents?
The only glimpse we get of them is when she is abandoned on Jaaku as a child, and we see her parents ship flying away. There really isn’t much to go on, and we are sure to find out all in time, but where is the fun in that? Every fan has a theory about this, and they are each probably unique. Some have Rey being born of the force, as Anakin Skywalker’s mother said he was, and the list goes on and on.
Last week at the Tribeca Film Festival, J.J. Abrams told Heat Vision:
“Rey’s parents are not in Episode VII. So, I can’t possibly say in this moment who they are. But I will say it is something that Rey thinks about, too.”
This announcement lit up the internet, as fans questioned his stance, quoting that Abrams had lied about film details before with Star Trek into Darkness. So, Rey’s parents were not in TFA. As the internet debated his statement, Abrams clarified his statement in an interview with EW, saying that:
“What I meant was that she doesn’t discover them in ‘Episode VII’. Not that they may not already be in her world.”
Rian Johnson will be taking over the reigns from Abrams for Star Wars: Episode VIII, and will have to choose to discuss this mystery, or to pass it to the director of Star Wars: Episode IX. This decision has not been made yet, or if it has, no one is talking about it.
Abrams also spoke about his intentions with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and why the filmed deliberately mirrored A New Hope:
“[‘The Force Awakens’] was a bridge and a kind of reminder; the audience needed to be reminded what ‘Star Wars’ is, but it needed to be established with something familiar, with a sense of where we are going to new lands, which is very much what 8 and 9 do. The weird thing about that movie is that it had been so long since the last one. Obviously the prequels had existed in between and we wanted to, sort of, reclaim the story. So we very consciously – and I know it is derided for this – we very consciously tried to borrow familiar beats so the rest of the movie could hang on something that we knew was ‘Star Wars.'”
Abrams makes these statements without regretting his decisions. I am with him on this subject as well. I like that Star Wars: TFA paid a good deal of homage to the original trilogy. In other news, io9 has solved C-3PO’s red arm debate. According to their breakdown of the C-3PO #1 comic book, 3PO got his red arm as tribute to a fallen droid that made the ultimate sacrifice. Let’s hope that the comic will let us know this harrowing tale as well.
Star Wars: Episode VIII will be in theaters in December 2017.
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