Rise of Skywalker co-writer on picking up Rey’s backstory from The Last Jedi

One of several mysteries which J.J. Abrams set up in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS was the identity of Rey's (Daisy Ridley) parents, and during the time between the release of THE FORCE AWAKENS and THE LAST JEDI, fans came up with numerous theories; Was she a Skywalker? A Kenobi? A Palpatine? A Binks? There were so many possibilities, but Rian Johnson threw fans a curveball when THE LAST JEDI found Rey admitting to Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) that her parents were nobodies, with Kylo adding that they were filthy junk traders who sold her off for drinking money.

This revelation didn't sit well with everyone, but J.J. Abrams had teased that there was still more to uncover regarding Rey's lineage. Will this be a "from a certain point of view" situation? While speaking with Rolling Stone, STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER co-writer Chris Terrio discussed adding new revelations to Rey's backstory without taking away from anything Rian Johnson set up in THE LAST JEDI.

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.

When asked how much J.J. Abrams had already set up regarding Rey's origins with he came onboard, Terrio would only say, "Uh, that one I have to dodge a little bit… When it’s redacted, you know it’s the juicy stuff." With the premiere of STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER now less than a week away, we'll soon have our answers to Rey's origins and the fate of the Sequel Trilogy's heroes and villains.

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER will hit theaters on December 20th.