Despite the fact that The Last Jedi seemed to have confirmed it as a non-issue when Kylo Ren said that Rey’s parents were “nobodies,” the Star Wars fan community is still in the throes of a debate over her parentage. Family is too important in the Star Wars saga for Rey’s parents to be insignificant desert trash, so fans are going on the basis that Kylo Ren was lying to get inside Rey’s head. Maybe the truth is that she doesn’t know who her own parents are, and it kills her to think that they’re not important – Star Wars fans have the same feeling about them, to be fair.
Rey killed them
A Redditor was rewatching The Last Jedi a few months ago and noticed Kylo Ren’s quote to Rey about her parents: “They’re dead in a paupers’ grave in the Jakku desert.” We saw what we can assume were Rey’s parents leaving her as a small child in a ship during a flashback sequence in The Force Awakens. The theory is that, with incredible Force powers and without any control of them, Rey brought the ship down as her parents abandoned her, effectively killing them, and then she blocked out the memory until Kylo Ren reminded her of what she did.
Han and Leia are her parents
When Rey bumped into Han Solo, they had an instant connection – instantly, she saw him as a father figure and he saw her as the promising young kid he had a duty to protect. Perhaps that’s because he was her dad all along. In the Expanded Universe, which Disney has consigned to legend (in other words, it’s non-canonical), Han and Leia had twins: a boy and a girl. It would be pretty satisfying to see that brought back into canon. If Kylo Ren and Rey are siblings, that would explain how close they were brought as Rey mastered the Force in The Last Jedi.
Ahsoka Tano is Rey’s mother
Kevin Smith posited this pretty crazy theory a few months ago on one of his podcasts. He was discussing who Keri Russell might be playing in the movie, since her role is as-yet undisclosed. His two leading theories were that she is either playing Rey’s mother or an older, live-action version of Ahsoka Tano from the animated series.
Then he suggested that maybe they’re the same person, and Ahsoka is Rey’s mother. This would contradict Kylo Ren’s “nobodies” claim, and also call into question why Rey is human if her mother is Togruta, so it’s an unlikely one to be true.
Palpatine is Rey’s grandfather
As soon as Palpatine’s distinctive laugh could be heard at the end of the teaser trailer for The Rise of Skywalker, fans started running wild with their theories about his involvement in the film. One interesting theory is based on the fact that Palpatine’s voice can be heard in Rey’s vision in The Force Awakens, and the fact that Rey seems very drawn to the Dark Side. Rey is tempted by the Dark Side way more than Luke ever was. Her character arc in the sequel trilogy is more informed by that of Anakin in the prequel trilogy – in other words, a powerful young Jedi is drawn towards the Dark Side by a connection to Palpatine. In Anakin’s case, it was that he saw him as a father figure. In Rey’s case, it could be that she’s his granddaughter – they share the same bloodline. We all know how important bloodline is in Star Wars, and it was just confirmed that the Skywalker saga is really Palpatine’s story. This would tie it all together. Plus, granddaughter – that’s a familial plot twist we’ve yet to see in the Star Wars franchise.
Obi-Wan is her father (or grandfather)
There’s a lot of time between Episode III and Episode IV in which Obi-Wan is supposedly hiding out and growing old on Tatooine. Between these movies, he went from being played by a middle-aged Ewan McGregor to being played by an elderly Sir Alec Guinness. There’s a lot of missing story there. Based on the fact that Alec Guinness and Ewan McGregor’s voices were mashed up during Rey’s Force vision in The Force Awakens, some fans starting piecing together that maybe Obi-Wan was a part of Rey’s genetic makeup, either as her father or her grandfather, depending on how the timelines line up.
Obi-Wan impregnated Rey’s mother using the Force
Ewan McGregor keeps saying he’s dying to play Obi-Wan again and Disney keeps ignoring this – maybe they have a secret plan for this character that will unravel in Episode IX. Maybe he impregnated someone using the Force like Palpatine supposedly did to Shmi Skywalker to create Anakin. Palpatine created a person who would be the ideal chosen one to lead his evil plan to rule the galaxy with an iron fist. So, it stands to reason that in response, Obi-Wan would create a person to counteract that and be the ideal chosen one to bring peace to the galaxy. That’s why Rey and Kylo Ren have such a close connection in these sequels.
Luke is Rey’s father...
This fan theory is fueled by a surprising amount of evidence. Rey and Luke felt a connection to the same lightsaber, she’s an ace pilot, and like Luke, she carried on the torch of the Jedi from an old master (who just happened to also be him) so that future generations could hope to bring balance to the Force. In many ways, it would be immensely satisfying to the Star Wars sequels pay off with the reveal that Rey is Luke’s daughter. The main evidence behind this theory is that at the end of The Force Awakens, when Rey arrives on Ahch-To, Luke seems to recognize her. Maybe this is what Daisy Ridley was referring to when she said, “I thought a lot [about Rey’s parentage] was answered in The Force Awakens.”
...and Kylo Ren killed Rey’s mother
Maybe there’s more to Luke’s flashback in The Last Jedi. Maybe his real beef with Kylo Ren is that he killed his wife – who, if Luke is Rey’s father, would be Rey’s mother. It seems unlikely that the naive, optimistic, goody-two-shoes Luke Skywalker we got to know in the original trilogy would consider murdering his nephew over a hunch.
Maybe it’s because that’s not the full story. Now, if this is true, Rey has the chance to avenge her mother in the same way that Luke did when he went after Darth Vader, who despite being his father, had also killed his mother. There are some messed-up families in the Star Wars universe.
They really are nobodies
The point of the original Star Wars movie was to show audiences that there’s adventure out there for everyone. Luke is a farm boy who has to do chores and works for his uncle and he spends his evenings looking up at the sky, thinking that maybe one day, he can go on an incredible adventure across the stars. And then he does. It’s inspiring. It’s what made the movie resonate with so many people. So, maybe Rey’s parents really are a pair of nobodies, like Kylo Ren said, and Rey was just a scavenger who wasn’t expected to amount to anything. Isn’t that enough to give us all hope?
Kylo Ren killed them
Kylo Ren seems to have a lot of knowledge about Rey’s parents. Assuming he’s telling the truth, he shows a lot of knowledge of their demise when he says, “They’re dead in a paupers’ grave in the Jakku desert.” He knows that they’re dead, he knows where they’re buried, and he knows what kind of grave they’re buried in – maybe that’s because he put them there. Whether he was working with the other Knights of Ren or not, maybe he was the one who murdered Rey’s parents and buried them in a paupers’ grave in the Jakku desert. It’s just a suggestion.
