Warning: This article contains Star Wars: The Last Jedi Spoilers. You should return if you haven’t watched the film yet!
After watching The Force Awakens, one of the most important mysteries that Star Wars fans were faced with was about the identity of Rey’s parents and whether they were among the existing characters of the franchise. After over two years of trying to figure out whether Rey’s last name was Solo, Skywalker or Kenobi, a lot of fans felt aghast at the notion that her parents were nobodies. According to Kylo Ren (wonder if his words had any reliability though), Rey’s parents were “filthy junk traders.” Now it is revealed that the director Rian Johnson gave all the possible options a great thought.
Jessica Chobot evaluated the relevant segment of the lengthy appearance by Johnson on Empire’s podcast. “I went through all the possibilities of who her parents could be,” said Johnson. “I made a list, with the upsides and downsides.” He further revealed that he decided to make Rey’s parents nobodies only because it “[breaks] out from the notion that the Force is this genetic thing that you have to be tied to somebody to have. It’s the ‘anybody can be president’ idea, which I liked introducing. The foremost thing, though, was just dramatically, storytelling-wise.”
It is obvious that Lucasfilm gave Johnson full freedom to decide about Rey’s parents, which doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the final word. Johnson has earlier stated that it won’t be a difficulty to retcon this in Episode IX if J.J. Abrams desires to change that angle. Even within The Last Jedi, there is scope to doubt it. Although Johnson says that in his opinion Kylo Ren wasn’t lying to Rey, it might just be a truth which is true only “from a certain point of view.” That’s how a Kenobi would consider it!
