Rey Was Designed to Resemble Luke from the Original Trilogy!
Probably the biggest question that fans have been asking since they first saw The Force Awakens is: “who are Rey’s parents?” There were several visual and verbal hints in the movie that made many fans to believe that she is actually Luke’s daughter. Now in a new interview concept artist Doug Chiang revealed that when they were creating Rey for the movie they had Luke in mind….
From TheHuffingtonPost:
“Early on when we were designing Rey, before the costume team came on board, we were trying to figure out, ‘OK, well how can we tie in the design history of that, and how can we bring a little bit of Luke, perhaps, in there.’”
Chiang explained that “Star Wars“ designs are rooted in history, and the idea for “The Force Awakens” was to make it look like there were leftover designs from the ‘70s and ‘80s. The artists wanted there to be a feeling that perhaps the designs just weren’t used in the original films, so it is possible that they just wanted to draw upon the original trilogy’s previous protagonist, Luke, since Rey is our new protagonist.
So is this another clue pointing to the popular fan theory that Rey is Luke’s daughter? Could be. My personal belief is that Abrams, Kasdan and Johnson intentionally left the door open of Rey’s heritage at the end of The Force Awakens. I don’t think during the making of TFA they had the answer to “Who is Rey?” set in stone. My guess is that Rey’s heritage is something that could develop in different directions depending on Rian Johnson’s Episode VIII script.
If she is Luke’s daughter, I am sure we will learn about it in Episode VIII. If she is not, I won’t be surprised if we will have to wait until Episode IX to find out the answer to this question.
What do you think? Is Rey’s heritage already known by the people involved? Or is it something that evolves together with the story?
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
Not to contradict Mr. Chiang’s statements, but compare also Rey’s costume to that of Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan http://digitalspyuk.cdnds.net/16/03/1280×719/gallery-1453138297-obi-wan-kenobi-rey-star-wars.jpg
I’m not going to flatly state that she’s his granddaughter, but I’ve reached that conclusion after examining all the possible scenarios.
If this would be the case, I see an Obi-Wan trilogy coming up then! 😉
One could hope. Ewan McGregor’s performance was certainly the high point of the prequel trilogy.
You’d have to explain how Obi-wan fell in love with someone, in-turn breaking the jedi code, which he isn’t very fond of. Explaining where that woman disappeared to, who their daughter had a child with, and why obi-wan never told anyone.
That’s a lot of backstory to try and retcon with Obi-wan, i’m on the fence about that being the case. However, I’m not against the idea as I think Rey Kenobi sounds like a badass name.
Also, that’s assuming obi-wan’s (or daughter) even carried on the name kenobi, which is even less likly if it was a daughter.
I’m liking “Rey Meefah” better.
Guess you weren’t watching Clone Wars, eh? Even if it isn’t Duchess Satine, her character sets the precedent in Mr. Kenobi…
http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Satine_Kryze
no i didn’t. I couldn’t really stand it.
but I’ll be honest you reminded me of that whole love thing, so ya i did forget about it.
But i’ve been told their relationship didn’t come to fruition, and it definitely doesn’t seem plausible as much with Rey being completely human.
However, yes maybe that does check one thing off a long list of unexplained things for obi-wan/his children.
We’d need a good trilogy.
Kenobi’d be a great fit for the burnt out ronin from Kurosawa’s ‘Yojimbo’ (played masterfully by Toshiro Mifune, who Lucas originally wanted to play Obi-wan, so there’s an interesting symmetry there), who turns two factions of criminals against each other (Jabba syndicate & Black Sun, maybe?) using his cunning. The character returns in ‘Sanjuro’…
He’d also be great as a Kambei Shimada-type character (the leader of the Seven Samurai, who defends a village of farmers from a small army of raiders), so there’s your 3!
Where did you hear that their relationship didn’t come to fruition? That was never made clear in Clone Wars and I think deliberately left ambiguous. Also, what did you mean by Rey being completely human? Mandalorians are human.
Obijuanmartinez was refering to Satine.. And in canon, Satine dies acording to her wiki page.
And i was just looking at her photo on wiki, it looked like an alien species at first.
Yeah I agree she does look alien but Mandalorians are definitely human.
Also according to the show itself where they showed her get killed?
I dont know.. I’m just reading a wiki here. lol
links up above.
I think they made it clear it never did. I think through dialogue in fact between Obi-wan and Anakin if not Satine and Obi-wan
Maybe but when Satine first appears in Clone wars I thought the way her and Obi Wan talk they possibly had a physical relationship. I can’t really remember though. I’ll have to rewatch the episode.
Yes but as it went on they cleared it up. They made it ambiguous on purposes and then went on to show how obiwan honored his Jedi vows while Anakin did not.
“I was once a Jedi Knight, the same as your father” – ergo he no longer considers himself to be a Jedi Knight by the time of ANH. I think they could get away with it on that basis. I’m still firmly a believer in Rey Skywalker though.
Her name was originally Kira. I wonder if she will find out her real name at some point. And I hope they use Kira.
Exactly, A LOT of backstory (and for anyone who says explain it in an Obi-wan standalone that would be a cheat for the prequels). I like the idea of him falling in love with someone and having a kid A LOT, but it raises the question of then what happened to his lover and then their child, just to get to Rey. It’s a lot of questions and explanations needed. if it was straight up Obi-wan’s child rather than grandchild I would have any easier time swallowing this theory.
You would have to do A FREAKING TON OF BACKSTORY on a character who isn’t even in the movie. You can do backstory to explain Rey’s heritage but IMO you need to have that character to at least have a presence in the film.
It’d fit perfect fit w/ 3 of my Kurosawa faves: Yojimbo, Sanjuro & 7 Samurai!
Don’t want to complicate things, but this guy with his attire can’t be ruled out yet as her possible dad:
I didn’t like the direction that the Jedi robes took in the Prequels. Owen wore the same types of robes that Obi-Wan did. I always thought it was simply desert garb. Wuher is also wearing something very similar. I always hoped the Jedi in the PT would dress in black as Luke did in ROTJ.
Agree. Luke kind of had a little bit of a Jedi tunic going and a black robe (though much less cumbersome and bulky) at the start of Jedi. But his pants were more combat ready. And he changed out of it from time to time as needed, like his Endor combat gear.
I think for Phantom Menace and maybe Episode 2 when they Jedi were more stoic ambassadors the robes were find, but once war broke out they should have switched out the robes for episode 3.
They did, originally.
Look at the Art of TPM book, and you will see Chiang and McCaig artwork of top-knot ‘samurai’ in black robes : Lucas then felt that he needed familiarity when we first see QG and OB1… which I think was probably a wise choice. One could argue that the OT Jedi robes are simply shabby over-cloaks, and the PT Jedi robes, though indeed similar, are sufficiently different ; in fact, you can see the ‘PT’ style under Old Ben’s over-cloak in ANH.
“bring a little bit of Luke, perhaps, in there”
Little bit? LITTLE BIT!?
I’m posting a response JUST so I can upvote you again. EGGSSSSACTLY!
Exactly. There’s also a “little bit” of the original trilogy in the movie too…..
Just the tip! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdXHW0DJEEU
JJ already admitted Rey & the rest of the story is mapped out. They know where they are going. It needed to be mapped out since the story is going past Episode 9.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj1kZWWTamk
Wasn’t that more than obvious, considering she’s the third hero being introduced in a desert planet and dressing basically with the same pantone as Anakin Skywalker while driving Luke’s speeder switched in vertical position?
I still think Rey is Leai and Han’s daughter…… The movie echoed so much of the originals….. And the big conflict for Luke was “I can’t kill my own father”. What’s more powerful? “I can’t kill my own brother” or “I can’t kill my own cousin”? I could go on….. Max to Han – “Who’s the girl?” And cut away. Leia embracing Rey without knowing her. And in the flashback scene it looked as though one of the baddies was killed by Kylo as he was about to strike at someone. Maybe Kylo couldn’t kill his tiny sister? Maybe he took her to Unkar Plutt? Also there’s a bit in the novelization where Kylo says to Rey “It IS you” during the interrogation. I dunno….. That’s the impression I get…..
first off, it’s Maz, second, then why didn’t Leia tell her she’s her mother?
Speculation? I think everyone thinks she’s dead…. Killed as a child in the attack on Luke’s temple. I think the moment with Leia was an instinctual one and Leia doesn’t realize it’s actually her child. Also Luke going into isolation….. Possibly deep guilt over the fact that not only did Kylo (Ben) go bad on his watch but he offed his baby sister too….. And I could totally envision the sort of gut punch it would be for Rey to learn that Han had been the family she was waiting for, she had a moment with him, only to watch him be killed.
being now aware of the Force, she would have felt it…
Sorry for the Maz typo. My (iPad) bad.
I agree on all your points, but the exact same logic applies if they are cousins.
But thematically does it feel LESS powerful if they’re cousins rather than brother and sister? I seriously don’t know….. Just a thought…..
It will be powerful because we have already had a powerful fight between the two. Would it be more with siblings? Probably. But I like that one is Leia’s on the Dark Side and one is Luke’s on the light side. Both the light and dark in their grandfather. Still gonna be good. They NEED to be related IMO.
Why does it have to be his sister he couldn’t kill. Why not his niece? And why can’t Leia embrace a niece as much as a daughter. I don’t buy it and if Epsiode 8 does that I don’t think that is what Abrams had planned. She was totally designed to be Luke’s daughter.
TOTALLY just my theory…… Just seems like there’s A TON of off screen backstory to explain without there being a whole OTHER one about Luke having a partner and a kid. Regardless I do think we’ll find out it was Kylo who couldn’t kill her and dumped her on Jaku thinking she’d never be discovered.
Hard to imagine since they had no idea who she was.
They are distraught over their son but not their daughter?
No way! Jacen & Jaina? How could Leia feel the death of her muggle ex-hubby from far away at Starkiller Base, then hug her ‘daughter’ and not get the ol’ Force-sense tingle? Not buyin’ it!
One of the main arguments against Rey not being a Skywalker is that it would be too obvious which it is but aside from Vader being Luke’s Father, When has SW been anything but predictable? It’s not some modern Shamalamadingdong shit fest with “twists” galore but rooted more in classic mythology hence all the hints at her parentage.
There’s also the idea that the force grows stronger over generations in families which would explain why Rey is so powerful in VII to the extent that she had progressed faster than Luke and Anakin had at her age.
Did you really reply to your own message?
Because that’s really strange.
But I guess no one else really reads what you have to say anymore.
So it makes sense in a sad way.
But I’m here for you Snark!
LOL
Kinda like when you get all the power-ups available in Force Unleashed 2: At that point, you’re like sleep-walking through the game!
Exactly. Great analogy!
That’s a poor reason to not do a story idea. People are nuts
I agree. I hate cliched storylines much as anyone else but there’s nothing wrong with old school ones long as they are done right.
As long as there’s no ‘too awkward to retcon’ incest bits, a la Luke & Leia kissing – this ain’t Game of Thrones, ya know…
Too late, My man. You could practically see Ben’s boner for his future cousin while she was strapped down in his quarters.
I agree in some ways. I think that Abrams and Kasdan had an idea, but left it open in any case for the next director to have some freedom. If it’s not Luke’s daughter, that’s just a huge disappointment and a big fat waste.
So much cooler if Luke and Rey are working together in the new movie as Father and daughter… especially if they don’t even know it yet…like Luke though she was dead
Especially since a Father/Daughter Jedi team hasn’t even really been done in the EU and would be a new dynamic.
I actually think they knew the whole time, there are plenty of clues in the movie, and then they decided to hold off until 8. Think about it. The way VII ends and we are pretty sure VIII is taking up right where it left off. Meaning there is a conversation that has to happen. And JJ saying that he didn’t want to have another reveal after having Ben Solo. I agree with that thinking, lets keep that focus more on Han/Ben (even though it didn’t work as much as JJ probably thought it would) and lets let Rey have her own moment with Luke in the next movie. So yes I think they knew the whole time.
Time for a Star Wars rap from Daisy…..https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4IYLg8TgO8
Just feel it in my old bones that we’re going to be blown away with the revelation on Rey’s parentage. One thing I do agree on though, if we don’t find out in Episode VIII, it’s not Luke.
Just listened to reys theme on you tube, at the very end (the last few notes) is it me or could that be turned in to imperial march aka what they did at end of phantom menace.
I think that having rey be lukes daughter doesn’t have to be as dramatic a reveal as lukes parentage was in empire strikes back…
This doesn’t necessarily mean she’s Luke’s daughter. All it means is that she is this trilogy’s Luke character.
Did you care who Luke’s parents were in A New Hope, or were you just enjoying the movie?
But here’s the difference: we didn’t know that there was any kind of mystery in A New Hope. We just accepted Obi-Wan’s story about Anakin and we hear Leia mention Bail (we didn’t know she was adopted) and we just didn’t think about their mother(s) since the topic of mothers wasn’t brought up. With Rey, there is a mystery about her parentage.
Same could be said for Rey 😉
No, no you can’t. We don’t know anything about her family other than she was left behind on Jakku. Why did that happen? Who are they? There are questions left unanswered at the end of The Force Awakens.
Same for Luke
No. Not the same at all. There was an “official” story for Luke (uncle and aunt caring about him because his father was killed by Vader), and there was no mystery placed. This is why “I am your father” was that shocking, because nobody knew that moment was all about revealing something big. Rey is a mystery on her own. Who are their parents, what their visions mean, what does Luke reaction to her mean, what the hug with Leia means. You can’t compare.
She is Luke’s daughter. If that is not the case, it will be ridiculous. Sure, it may be obvious but they can reveal it in an interesting way and the backstory could be interesting. It all depends on how they present it.
I think it cannot be said it would be ridiculous if you still don’t know the alternative.
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If Rey is not Luke’s daughter will be a shame, as Yoda said pass on what you have learnt. If I Was writing I would have Kylo Ren hiding Rey on Jakku and have Luke thinking he has lost his daughter and no doubt his wife and he goes into hiding devastated. He knows one day he has to pass the Jedi knowledge again on or the Sith/Knight of Ren have won.
I think she’s the granddaughter of Obi-wan and daughter of Luke. Obi-wan had an affair on Tatoonie. So he didn’t know he had a daughter, While Luke was rebuilding the Jedi Order after the fall of the Empire he encountered a woman around his age that was extremely powerful in the force. She ended up being the daughter of Obi-wan. She helps Luke reestablish the Jedi Order and open up an academy. In time they fall in love. During the massacre of all of Luke’s students and new jedi Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren, Luke’s wife and unborn child escapes on a spaceship, only to be chased by the Knights of Ren. The Knights of Ren shoots down her spaceshipe and she crash lands of a planet. There she is rescued by the inhabitants of the planet. These inhabitants try and save her but her injuries are too severe. They do save her baby. This child is raised by a family on the planet. As this child get older she also starts to show powers that scare her adoptive family. Not knowing how to raise a child with such powers, and possibly also scared of the First Order finding out about her, the family decides to drop this little girl off on a planet with a junk dealer. They know that she will not be found there. This little child with powers is Rey. This is total my theory, combining previous theories about Rey possibly being related to Luke and Obi-wan.
I agree that JJ & Co didn’t know what to do regarding Rey’s parentage. However, for that reason, Rian Johnson is on to a loser. If he makes her Luke’s daughter, people will say it’s predictable and boring. If he goes with the other popular theories (born of the force, Obi-Wan’s granddaughter etc) then people will say he’s changing from the obvious for the sake of it and being disrespectful of the continuation of the Skywalker lineage. If he goes with something weird (related to someone we don’t know, Lor San Tekka’s niece etc) then people will think he’s just stupid.
One thing’s for sure – He’s got a lot of explaining to do – especially as he’s also writing Ep IX
I think he should go with the simple answer. Rey’s parents are just some random assholes who didn’t want her. The biggest wist would be that there is no twist.
Lukes first words in the new film will be “You are too old” like Yoda in Empire lol!
One thing that comes to mind, for me, is that second teaser trailer with Luke saying “The Force is strong in my family, my father has it, I have it, my sister has it…. you have that power too”… which to me sounds like something he’d say to Rey (as Ben would already know this!)… unless JJ was just adding this to annoy us…
According to the Art of TFA, her final outfit is meant to reflect Han. She has basically inherited from him literally (the Falcon, Chewie) and figuratively by taking on some of his look.
I still believe she could be Luke’s daughter by the way. But there is zero chance Han and Leia are her parents. It would be the most ridiculous “revelation” ever given how they met and reacted to each other in TFA. There is no reason for Han and Leia to never mention her to each other in the moments we see onscreen. “Leia, I saw our son… oh, and he kidnapped our long lost daughter who I just found barely living on a desert world. You think we should save her?” It would fall flat and feel worse than the Khan “revelation.”
Sorry to disagree but what if she was a small child when they last saw her there would be no way for them to recognize her as there daughter because she has now grown up and her name was not Rey when she was born. unless you want to talk about the force which would then allow her to know if it was Luke’s daughter and then why can she not feel where Luke was but now back to my idea. When the falcon was stolen Rey was on board. After searching for her an the falcon for so long they gave up hope. That tied with Benn turning to the darkside and the loss of both children is what help Han and Leah move away from each other Han blaming Leah for the the loss of Benn and Leah blaming Leah blaming Han for the loss of Rey. When the falcon finally was left in the hands of Platt she was also left cause what crooks could move around with a small child on board. At the end of TFA when Luke sees her his look is more of one of worry like ” oh no I don’t want to mess up again like I did with Benn” but this is just my ideas and are prob wrong lol
Leia is strong with the Force, there is no way she would NOT sense something. Han on the other hand would be oblivious.
goddamn it, Rey’s parentage has been discussed/theorized/ruminated so much on the internet since before TFA even opened in theaters that I don’t even care anymore!!! Christ, ad nauseum is an UNDERstatement.
If VIII or XI answers the question then great but if not that’s fine too, let it be a mystery, I wish everyone would just shut up about it.
Think of it this way. When the Apes and Monkeys take over, and it will happen you know, and we are all their slaves, will anybody be concerned about who Reys parents are? I think not.
Lol.. That’s why I’very been staying out of this mess;18 more months of Maury.
As for me.. I know who’s DNA makes the most sense.. And I know who the guys making these movies will be unimaginative enough to go with instead. And that will suffice.
I am still leaning on her being Han and Leah’s daughter. I can see a very deep story coming for her finding this out and then knowing her brother kill her father that she had been waiting for her parents to return for a long time just to be taken away just as fast. This leading her fall close to the darkside with the help of Snoke trying to sway her cause he believes she is stronger in the force then Benn. With Luke saving her before she falls.
Dude, it’s Leia.
Regarding clothes, I think ‘The Scythian’ had as much to do with Rey’s threads as Luke’s ANH outfit did. I’ve seen the concept art and several of those artists did not produce designs that were inspired by Luke in ANH. I’m not in the ‘Mary sue’ camp by any stretch but I do believe 3rd wave feminism had a big hand in the final design of her outfit; adrogyny appears to have been the goal of the outfit . That said, you can clearly see a inspiration of Luke’s ESB outfit in the costume she wore in the final scenes.
My overall opinion is that the costumes were good, especially the Grey one with the bolero.. very nice. But I think her character would have been better served with something more ‘kit bashed’ than an adaptation of farming clothes.
Unlike Rey, Luke was allowed to succeed AND fail in his debut film. He also didn’t defeat the main villain on his first try.
No shit Sherlock!
As much as they tried to design Rey with Luke in mind, her “First Steps” are remarkably more like Anakin’s.
Desert Planet- Check,
Raised by a junk dealer- Check
Is able to understand Driod and Alien languages- Check
Outrageously strong connection with the Force- Check
I don’t know what this means, but it most certainly has less parallels to Luke and more with Anakin.
She has a ton of midi-chlorians.
Star wars is taking the oldboy route!!
Ha! Big twist right there mrfrs!!
It’s chewie’s daughter!!
With han…
Máster theory
She is totally Lujes daughter I knew it since the first time I saw it