Star Wars: The Force Awakens left fans with a lot of questions, but as follow-up The Last Jedi moves slowly closer to its December release one mystery eclipses all others. While Maz Kanata's “a good question for another time” isn’t a satisfactory explanation for Luke’s lightsaber suddenly popping up again, it’s not movie-breaking, and dangling threads persist, like Phasma’s escape from Starkiller or how Leia formed the Resistance – as told in a new comic and the novel Bloodline respectively. However, we’re still no closer to learning who Rey’s parents are.
Speculation of where the scavenger-turned-Jedi comes from has been rife, but far and away the two most popular theories are that she’s a Skywalker (the daughter of either Han and Leia or Luke) or a Kenobi (granddaughter of Obi-Wan). Rian Johnson has confirmed that Episode VIII will deal with this tricky subject, although when it comes to the Ahch-To-shattering reveal, it probably shouldn’t be either of those options.
What we know concretely is that Rey – who is 19 around the time of The Force Awakens - was left on Jakku as a young child with Unkar Plutt, presumably 20-25 years ABY (after the Battle of Yavin) and so 10-15 years before the sequel trilogy begins. From what Rey remembers, she’s explicitly waiting for her family to return, although whether that’s the result of a child trying to account for her abandonment isn’t made clear - her arc in the film definitely suggests she hanging on to a false truth. There's a lot of directions this could go in, but perhaps the best is something more unknown.
Why She Shouldn’t Be A Skywalker
The longest-standing theory is that Rey is a Skywalker-Solo. This was the assumption from the moment Daisy Ridley – who looks a bit like a young Carrie Fisher if you squint – was cast and the build up of mystery in The Force Awakens’ marketing only solidified that (rumors even predicted a big reveal). However, post-movie the only way to have it work requires making Han and Leia the worst parents in galactic history. Throughout the film, neither of the estranged lovers even seem to consider for a second that Rey is their daughter and as the stakes are raised are almost ignorant of the possibility – when she’s taken by Kylo Ren or recovering from Han’s death to not figure it out and explain takes extreme obliviousness. That’s nothing on the shoddy explanation for her being stranded though; in Bloodline, set six years before The Force Awakens, Ben Solo is still working with Luke to find Jedi Temples, his turn to the dark side still a long way off. Per the established canon, Rey has been on Jakku a good five years at this point, leaving no explanation for her being left behind (unless Han is really forgetful). Small things – like Kylo’s scar – can be retconned, but there’s too much of contradiction to allow this to sit.
If not Solo, it must be Rey Skywalker then? That was many people’s assumption coming out of The Force Awakens in December 2015; it neatly side-steps many of the Han and Leia issues if Rey’s their niece rather than daughter and due to Star Wars’ familial galactic dominance he’s really the only other option. But as time’s worn on this has got strained too. Bloodline obviously makes Luke look negligent, while it seems that – unlike in the Expanded Universe, where Luke married Mara Jade and fathered Ben Skywalker – he’s followed the Jedi Order’s celibacy rules in the new canon. This has been compounded by the reveal that Luke has never met Rey before the end of The Force Awakens.
But the real reason why Rey shouldn’t be related to Anakin, Luke and the rest of the clan in any form is what it represents to the underlying story. On an operatic stage, having the prequels follow Anakin, the originals his twin children, and the sequels their offspring is suitably grandiose (especially if Rey and Ben are cousins, representing diversification and expansion), but it stretches the incestuous credulity of the franchise to a breaking point. That the Rebellion leader and unexpected savior were both the children of the maniacal dictator is a major contrivance that worked thanks to the original trilogy’s almost fairy-tale feel, but this next step would be reductive as The Force Awakens sets it up.
We already have one new generation Skywalker (and a jaw-drop "did he just say that" reveal) in the form of Kylo Ren. The extreme wannabe Darth Vader manages to embody all the facets of Star Wars’ multi-generation story without needing a companion; in terms of exploring the sins of the fathers he hits the notes of both previous trilogies and advances them. Rey Skywalker just retreads old ground. We’ve come to expect anybody important to be a Skywalker, but it’s a neat subversion to have the only new family member in the sequel trilogy be the villain, showing down against another, outside force.
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Why Rey Won't Be A Kenobi
And so on to what has, thanks to the aforementioned points, become the main fan theory. When the possibility of Rey Kenobi was mentioned at Star Wars Celebration, it got the biggest cheer by a planetary mile. That’s primarily because, if she isn’t a Skywalker or Solo, her being the granddaughter of Obi-Wan through some relationship is literally the only other lineage possibility that isn’t going into obscure realms.
There are similar canon mars to Obi-Wan’s character as there are with the Solo/Skywalker clan, although the real reason it's not a good idea is where the idea comes from. Like many meticulously crafted fan theories that then get simplified as they seep into the mainstream, Rey Kenobi has now lost what the original kernel of the idea was. In this case, the whole thing is motivated by Obi-Wan’s arc in The Clone Wars where his long-standing romantic entanglement with Mandalorian Duchess Satine Kryze was introduced, something that has come back into play as part of Sabine in Rebels; it's been theorized she is actually Obi-Wan's child, and Rey is the perfect age to be her daughter. There's grounding for sure, although showrunner Dave Filoni has shot down the Satine/Sabine connection, removing an essential degree from a Rey link.
When you consider that Rey’s parentage is the key to the movies, it would be a very bad move. Yes, the whole point of the new canon is to have things work harmoniously: Battlefront II’s story campaign will be elaborated on in tie-in novel Inferno Squadron; Saw Gerrera (as well as the Ghost and Chopper) jumped from animation to the movies with Rogue One. But here we’re not talking about building a cohesive universe, rather a major narrative reveal in one of the biggest films of the decade. Should Rey's explanation hinge on TV episodes aired years apart from two cable shows that tend to get half a million viewers per episode, especially when the tight connections are so disparate only die-hard fans will pick up on them? That’s going to require far too much exposition or otherwise alienate the majority of the movie-going audience.
Simply, Rey Kenobi only exists as prospective fan bait and a way to provide a connection to previous characters that really isn’t needed.
Who Should Rey Be?
So she shouldn’t be a Skywalker or a Kenobi. What can Rey be other than no one? Well, perhaps being no one wouldn’t be such a bad thing. It would certainly accentuate the contrast between her and Ben Solo. Rian Johnson has talked about how one thing he really wanted to add to Star Wars was the idea of a regular hero, and while that ostensibly will be embodied in Rose, it fits for Rey too; an outside contender who is able to shape the galaxy as much as its core family. Disney Star Wars has been all about bringing in new people and the movies so far have trumpeted the unlikely heroes, so what fits those ideas better than a non-Skywalker leading the way?
Of course, there needs to be something more to her – a satisfactory explanation for her powers that gives a cogent reason for why she was left on Jakku. Popular suggestions are that she’s another immaculately conceived Chosen One or that her parents were somehow linked to the destruction of Luke’s Jedi Academy. Both of these give a reason for Luke to be wary of training his new ward without genetics coming into it, but there are countless avenues that would be more interesting that her being the daughter of someone important.
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Star Wars has been about familial heritage ever since The Empire Strikes Back dropped its “I am your father” bombshell, but that needn’t mean every twist afterwards should be in the same vein. And that's presuming there even needs to be a twist in the first place. Perhaps Rey's backstory can be fleshed out lightly rather than a major realignment. The Last Jedi's got enough turbulent character reframing as it is.
