Few franchises are as successful as Star Wars, and let’s be honest, although the Ip has given us some of the best movies to ever hit the big screen, the Skywalker family tree can get pretty complicated. Warning, minor spoilers ahead!
One of the biggest family reveals from the new Star Wars movies was to do with Rey. The new Jedi was exposed to be related to the big intergalactic bad Palpatine before adopting the Skywalker name after the events of the 2019 action movie Rise of Skywalker. But according to the actor Daisy Ridley Rey’s linage wasn’t always connected to Palpatine.
In fact, originally, director JJ Abrams had toyed with tying her to one of the best Star Wars characters in the canon – Obi-Wan Kenobi. During an interview on the Jimmy Kimmel live show with guest host Josh Gad, Ridley broke down how Rey’s origins fluctuated throughout the trilogy.
“No [I didn’t know Rey’s lineage from the start],” she said. “At the beginning there was toying with an Obi-Wan connection, there were different versions. And then it really went to ‘she was no one’.”
“And then it came to episode nine, and JJ pitched me the film and was like, ‘oh yeah, Palpatine’s your granddaddy.’ And I was like, ‘awesome!’ And then two weeks later, he was like, ‘oh we’re not sure.’ So it kept changing, so even after filming, I wasn’t sure what the answer was going to be,” the actor continued.
Obviously, Abrams did eventually settle on Palpatine as Rey’s family, with Obi-wan Kenobi still by his lonesome. And really, we are pretty glad about the decision. While Rise of Skywalker is looked on as the worst movie in the sequel trilogy by many Star Wars fans, it did expand on the exciting ideas from The Last Jedi, where fans saw Rey battle with the Dark Side and struggle with her destiny.
Now, go look over our list of the best Star Wars series.