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Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Co-Writer On Adding to Story of Rey’s Lineage Following The Last Jedi

December 14, 2019 | Posted by Ashish
Star Wars Rise of Skywalker Daisy Ridley Rey, Colin Trevorrow Image Credit: Lucasfilm

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker co-writer Chris Terrio discussed the bold choices The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson made regarding Rey’s parents, having her say they were “nobodies” and Kylo Ren adding that they were “filthy junk traders,” a far cry from all the fan speculation regarding Rey being a Skywalker, a Kenobi, or even a Palpatine. Director J.J. Abrams has said there is more to the story, and Terrio added that it doesn’t have to be one or the other (you either come from nothing or you are royalty).

“That’s a really interesting thing that Rian did. It’s a democratization of Star Wars, saying that your lineage and your blood doesn’t necessarily determine who you are, and your past doesn’t determine your future. But we took those provocations as ideas that we could grapple with and hopefully expand upon in this film, because I don’t think it’s a dialectic of one or the other, where either you come from nothing or you are born royalty. There’s a lot of ground in between. Even [Kylo] Ren’s terminology isn’t… When he says “You’re no one” — well, what does that mean? Is that how Rey would think about herself? Does Rey even think of these questions? I’m trying not to reveal any story points here! There’s a Gordian knot in my tongue. I think those are really valid ideas that Rian put forth, but any series of films, especially if you have three, is a conversation — which is, as I said early on when I was talking to J.J., thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. If Force Awakens asks the question of who is Rey and where did she come from, and then The Last Jedi answered it with a negative in a certain way, hopefully The Rise of Skywalker will take those two ideas and create a third thing.”

Terrio was also asked how much of Rey’s story Abrams already had set when he first met with him.

“Uh, that one I have to dodge a little bit… When it’s redacted, you know it’s the juicy stuff.”

The Rise of Skywalker opens December 20th.