Beware: Spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens abound in this post.

One of the most exciting aspects of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is that it not only enthralls and intrigues, it sparks discussion. J.J. Abrams and co-writer Lawrence Kasdan crafted a screenplay that poses a lot of questions for the Star Wars universe, and while it answers plenty of them, it also leaves a number of major plot points and character details up for discussion. Of course, this is the nature of the beast when you’re making the first film in a new trilogy—you want to set the next two parts of the saga up with a solid foundation that leaves room to grow. But it’s also a hallmark of Abrams’ filmmaking. He has long held that the question is always more interesting than the answer, using his infamous “Mystery Box” as an example, and in The Force Awakens, Abrams and Kasdan find a pretty wonderful balance of satisfying the audience while also leaving some major questions unanswered.

One of the biggest unanswered questions in Star Wars: The Force Awakens pertains to Daisy Ridley’s phenomenal new character Rey. She is undoubtedly the hero of this new trilogy, and in keeping with the tradition of Luke Skywalker, she joins the action of The Force Awakens by leaving her home planet behind with zero familial ties. However, over the course of the movie, we learn that Rey was not only abandoned as a child by her mysterious parents (entrusted with what looks to be Simon Pegg’s Unkar Plutt), but she also possesses incredibly strong Force abilities. Given that the Force runs very strong in the Skywalker family and this is, you know, a Star Wars movie, there’s reason to believe her parentage has some major ties to the Original Trilogy. The question then is: who are Rey’s parents?

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Image via Lucasfilm

I think there are four main possibilities, but before getting to that, I’d like to address the question itself. To be perfectly honest, I’m not entirely sure Abrams and Co. knew the answer when they posed the question of Rey’s parentage. I’ve no doubt Abrams has an answer for himself, but since he didn’t answer it in the context of the film, it could conceivably be left up to producer/Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy to firm up with either Episode VIII writer/director Rian Johnson or Episode IX co-writer/director Colin Trevorrow. That would certainly allow Johnson and Trevorrow to craft their stories without being tied down to specific mythology just yet, or even change things up had they begun with one answer and then decided another was more appropriate given the story they decided to tell. So as we speculate on just who Rey’s parents are, keep in mind that it’s entirely possible that an official answer is still in flux.

Option #1: Han Solo and Leia Organa

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Image via Lucasfilm

The first option is the most obvious: Han and Leia are Rey’s parents. This would certainly tee up a shocking showdown between Rey and her brother Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) to rival the Luke/Vader confrontation in The Empire Strikes Back, and would also explain the knowing glances that Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher give Rey within the context of The Force Awakens. Maybe most notably, it would explain why when Rey and Chewbacca return to the Resistance base after Han’s death, Leia ignores poor Chewie and goes straight to Rey for a solemn embrace.

The evidence? Well the scene in Maz Kanata’s palace where Maz asks Han, “So, who’s the girl?” certainly ends very abruptly and conspicuously, and Han seems to warm up to Rey quite quickly for someone of his temperament. There’s also the gifting of the blaster and the offer to join the crew of the Millennium Falcon, all of which reeks of guilty father feeling guilty.

But if Han and Leia are Rey’s parents, why would they have abandoned her in the first place? Many have already started to float the theory that Rey was part of the young padawans in training at Luke’s Jedi Camp when Kylo turned bad and went on a murderous spree a la his grandfather. The thinking here is that Han and Leia quickly got Rey out of danger, then abandoned her on Jakku to keep her away from her brother. This would be yet another parallel to George Lucas’ original films, following the plan set in motion after Padme gave birth to Luke and Leia—hide the kid(s) from the mean, vengeful turncoat.

This answer is almost too easy, though, and if Kennedy and Johnson aim to make Episode VIII as shocking and dark as Empire, it feels like a more unexpected twist could be in order. Which leads us to…

Option #2: Luke Skywalker and Mystery Woman

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Image via Lucasfilm

First of all, Luke Skywalker should not be having kids. We know his personal history, we know his family history, and so one would think he’d abstain from procreating to in an act of self-sacrifice. However, if Luke did father a child, Rey could certainly be it. This would make the inevitable Rey/Kylo showdown a tad less intense—dueling cousins doesn’t have the same weight as dueling siblings—but would certainly explain the strength of Rey’s Force powers and the speed with which she learns to use them.

But who would be Rey’s mother? Could it be a character we’ve met before, or someone new entirely? That’s where the twist could really come in—not with Luke as the father, but with someone shocking as the mother. This option also sets up a fascinating dynamic between Rey and Luke in Episode VIII, as The Force Awakens ends with Rey tracking down a self-exiled Luke and trying to hand him a lightsaber he last saw when dueling with his own father. Will he train Rey? Did he himself hide her or was that duty entrusted to Han and Leia? Does he even want a relationship with his daughter? All intriguing questions that could certainly make for some wonderful drama should this answer come to pass. But there’s also another option, one that would tie the “concluding trilogy” to the “prequel trilogy”.

 

Option #3: The Force

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Image via Lucasfilm

In the Star Wars prequel trilogy, we learned that Anakin Skywalker was supposedly immaculately conceived, born to a slave named Shmi Skywalker. Shmi tells Qui-Gon Jinn that she simply became pregnant one day, further correlating Lucas’ saga with the stories of The Bible. Could it be possible that Rey is the Second Coming? Another immaculate conception borne out of The Force in a post-Empire world? It’s possible, though I’m dubious of Kennedy and Co.’s desire to make the connection between the new trilogy and the prequel trilogy stronger. Given the reputation of the Anakin saga, Kennedy and the new Lucasfilm likely want to avoid comparisons to those films at all costs, and making Rey an immaculate conception would definitely invite strong correlations between the two.

It’s also less interesting from a story standpoint, weakening the familial connection Rey has with Kylo Ren—although the Darth Vader superfan would almost certainly throw a hissy fit if he learned this girl’s birth was identical to that of his idol. And who would be the unwitting mother? A random woman? Someone we know? While this answer merits mention as a possibility, I’d consider it most unlikely.

Option #4: We Haven’t Met Them Yet

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Image via Lucasfilm

There’s also a fourth option, and that is Rey’s parents are characters we’ve never met. She could be an entirely new hero from the ground up, a brand new creation of Abrams, Kasdan, and Kennedy. That would move this new trilogy further in a different direction from the original saga, but given that these new episodes are still definitely part of the Star Wars saga, it feels counterintuitive to give Rey zero connection to the original films. We already have entirely new heroes in Finn and Poe Dameron, so would Kennedy really make all three heroes untethered to the original trilogy? I doubt it. Rey has to have at least some blood connection to Kylo Ren—that’s what makes the inevitable showdown an emotional conflict as well as a physical one, and that’s what gives Kylo’s arc even more weight beyond being a simple bratty villain.

So what do you think, folks? Who are Rey’s parents? I’ve laid out my case for the four most likely options, but which do you think is most plausible? And do you think we’ll get an answer in Episode VIII, or will we have to wait until the concluding chapter to have this burning question revealed? Sound off in the comments below.

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