John Williams Shares His Best Guess on Rey’s Family Tree.

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Legendary composer John Williams has remained a constant figure within the Star Wars franchise for the last forty years, and his work is instantly recognizable. The acclaimed composer who returned to score Star Wars: The Force Awakens last year speculated on Rey’s family tree. Read on for more.

 

Academy Award-winning composer John Williams brought the house down with his spectacular performance with the Boston Pops Orchestra on Thursday night. Williams, who was the Boston Pops conductor from 1980-1993 took center stage inside Boston’s lush, intimate Symphony Hall for an event titled John Williams’ Film Night.

 

Boston Pops at Symphony Hall in Boston, Thursday, May 12, 2016. (Photo by Winslow Townson) John Williams, conductor Keith Lockhart, conductor

 

For over 90 minutes, the composer who has scored all seven Star Wars movies to date performed the heroic, soaring “Star Wars Main Title”, knocked it out of the park with fan favorites such as “The Imperial March,” and went on to conduct material from the recent Star Wars: The Force Awakens film. In between sets, he joked that his “Scherzo for X-Wings” in Star Wars: Force Awakens was drowned out by the special effects in the film. Williams delivered the highlight of evening as scenes from ‘The Force Awakens’ film were projected on a large screen along with the amazing musical composition he wrote for the film’s finale. He finally ended the evenings performance with encores of two additional “Star Wars” pieces as well.

 

During the evening, Williams shared his best guess as to who the parents of Rey (Daisy Ridley’s character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens) may be. Williams said.

“I never asked J.J. Abrams who Rey’s father is, but I think it’s Luke Skywalker,” Williams said. “Your guess is as good as mine, though.”

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The composer, now 84, showed no signs of slowing down as he sent a crowd of Bostonians and visiting Star Wars fanatics off into the night with that magical feeling that only Williams can deliver…

 

Check back for more Star Wars news hers at SWNN.

 

Star Wars: Episode VIII opens Dec. 15, 2017.

 

Source: Indierevolver

 

 

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47 thoughts on “John Williams Shares His Best Guess on Rey’s Family Tree.

  • May 14, 2016 at 6:34 pm
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    Interesting. I would have guessed that they’d let Williams in on the secret of Rey’s parentage to maybe inform Rey’s theme somehow.

    • May 14, 2016 at 7:23 pm
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      They probably did, but he doesn’t have to let us know that. Also, she’s Luke’s daughter, because anything else would be ridiculous.

      • May 14, 2016 at 7:36 pm
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        If he does know, wouldn’t his comment violate some NDA?

      • May 14, 2016 at 10:40 pm
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        You are correct!

      • May 15, 2016 at 12:16 am
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        There is no possible way she is Luke’s daughter. Reasons 1: She knows who Luke Skywalker is and had always believed him a myth.
        2: She was old enough when she was left on Jakku to be aware of who her parents are.
        3: According to Claudia Gray’s recent novel, Bloodline, Luke was still active and training Ben 6 years prior to TFA so he had no need to hide a daughter there even earlier.
        4. At this time Luke was still in good terms with Han and Leia and occasional contact. Therefore they would know his child

        • May 15, 2016 at 1:01 am
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          on point 3… You seriously think that she turned from 6 to 20-ish in 6 years? Check the math there…
          I should read that novel.

          • May 15, 2016 at 1:07 am
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            That’s the opposite of what I’m saying. My point is that she was dropped on Jakku when she was a child and since Luke was still active 6 years before TFA then it would make no sense for him to abandon his child several years prior. So Luke is not the father

          • May 15, 2016 at 1:12 am
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            From what we know she was 19 in TFA, about 5 when left on Jakku, which would make her 13 during this new Bloodline novel.

            Like I said, maybe she was with her mother (which could lead to a bunch of possibilities), or maybe Luke believed that she was dead at some point and is not addressed in the novel.

            Who knows. I do appreciate your points, rather than just going with the “she’s Anakin” or Obi Wan’s kid. I’m open to whatever, but I really hope that it doesn’t involve cloning or any overly sci fi elements for explanation.

          • May 15, 2016 at 1:34 am
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            On that I absolutely agree!! Nothing strange

          • May 15, 2016 at 7:32 am
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            Sorry, this is Rian we’re talking about.

          • May 15, 2016 at 11:57 am
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            I know. It makes me a bit worried.

        • May 15, 2016 at 1:07 am
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          She could have been left there by her mother or taken from her mother. Also who knows what Luke’s knowledge of a potential daughter may have been, if at all.

          • May 15, 2016 at 1:08 am
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            Quite a stretch there…

          • May 15, 2016 at 1:15 am
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            Why is that a stretch? Maybe not the best choice, but it takes two to get pregnant and not necessarily two to raise a child. He may have not been aware or maybe believed that she was dead. Darth Vader didn’t seem to know that he had children out there until sometime between ANH and ESB.

          • May 15, 2016 at 1:17 am
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            It is nice that we have to wait to see. For the first time in my lifetime, we don’t know what is going to happen in the Skywalker drama. We basically knew what was going to happen with the prequels up to a point. It’s kinda exciting.

        • May 15, 2016 at 2:36 am
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          Unless he was struggling with avoiding the dark side after having a little taste of it and is the reason why he abandoned his daughter at such a young age. Could also be why he began his search for ancient Jedi knowledge as a means of sovereignty. Maybe he was intimidated by her unusually strong connection to the force and feared that she would struggle between both sides as he and his father have with her becoming a new (perhaps worse) version of Vader. Ironically Ben did this instead. So he got fucked either way. And if you’re wondering why he wasn’t so cautious with Ben..well it’s cause it’s not is kid..I’m sure he was trying hard af to not train him but he can’t be like “Nah I’m not going to train him cause look what happened to our dad.” BECAUSE
          ** SPOILERS FOR BLOODLINE** Ben didn’t know Vader was his grandfather..so it’d be kind of suspicious that his Jedi uncle wouldn’t want to train force sensitive little Ben Solo. BAMMMM

          • May 15, 2016 at 7:36 am
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            “Maybe he was intimidated by her unusually strong connection to the force and feared that she would struggle between both sides as he and his father have”

            So, he drops her off on a planet to struggle under the same harsh conditions as he did…?

          • May 15, 2016 at 7:49 am
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            Maybe he thought solitude on a desert plantet would be good for her..he and Anakin weren’t evil when we first met them on tatooine.

        • May 15, 2016 at 2:51 am
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          The Star Wars saga is the story of the Skywalkers. So, unless Ben turns good again or old man Luke has a child during this trilogy, Rey is definitely a Luke’s child & a Skywalker.

          • May 15, 2016 at 7:24 am
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            [Spoiler Caution]
            She’s Kylo’s daughter. [Consequently, the ‘love’ element of the next film will be between Kylo and female character we’ve seen before.]
            Sorry if that hurts.

          • May 15, 2016 at 7:30 am
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            Ben is like 26 years old in TFA, Rey is 19. Don’t be ridiculous! 😛

        • May 16, 2016 at 2:51 am
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          1, 2: How would she have known her father was Luke Skywalker when she was five years old? Kids aren’t often aware of their parents’ names and identities other than “mom and dad” at that age. Plus, even if she was aware of his face at that age, she surely had never seen the face of the mythical man known as Luke Skywalker when she was old enough to understand such things, on Jakku. She wouldn’t have connected the dots until the end of TFA, when no lines were spoken, and only faces were given for us to go on. Plus Her mother may have taken her away from Luke when or before she was born anyway.
          3: Again you assume Luke was aware of this. He could have been with someone who left him once she realized she was pregnant. Maybe the mother didn’t want to have her daughter, a grandchild of Vader, be exposed to the Force.
          4. Again, you assume Luke is aware that he has a child. He doesn’t need to be aware of that. See: Vader’s own awareness of offspring.

      • May 15, 2016 at 8:32 am
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        She’s not Luke’s daughter. Besides the lightsaber calling her there’s no justification for her being so. There’s another character in the film that shares Luke’s characteristics and abilities yet no one will speculate about him because he’s not “ideal” Sigh. Daisy knows who Rey’s parents are and has stated that they’re not important to her character and if that is the case it cannot be Luke. Not to mention Mark Hamill is basically stating she is his child all over social media and given his strict NDA if she where Luke’s daughter he’d be a little more cautious. He was able to keep Luke’s parentage a secret. They’re trying to keep a surprise here and if it got out he’d lose allot of money. All her similarities to Luke are based purely on aesthetic.

        • May 15, 2016 at 7:48 pm
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          He kept Luke’s parentage a secret? He didn’t even know about it until the day they shot the scene! He didn’t have long to keep the secret either, and back then, there wasn’t the kind of media pressure and frenzied social media craziness either. Hamill hasn’t once been out on social media either saying she’s Luke’s kid, either. He made one comment at a university interview that Ridley was almost like a daughter to him, Mark Hamill, and smiled knowingly, having teased the audience.

          Also, Ridley never said Rey’s parent’s weren’t important to her character, she said that Rey’s parents don’t define her character, she is her own person.

          That said, I tend to agree with the sentiment that she is not in fact Luke’s daughter. There would almost need to be a whole act or even a whole film to fill in the details of that, especially after reading Bloodlines, where nobody is aware that Luke has a child, so either he would have to be unaware of it himself, or keeping it a secret from everyone, which would be against Luke’s character. He would have shared that info with his sister definitely.

    • May 15, 2016 at 10:07 am
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      To me, that implies that the DIRECTORS don’t even know who Rey’s lineage is, leaving it for future films to decide.
      OPEN-ENDED! :O

      • May 16, 2016 at 8:17 am
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        It wouldn’t surprise me though if JJ said “this is too hard – I’ll let someone else figure it out later”. Maybe John Williams doesn’t know because JJ doesn’t actually know? (Maybe Rian Johnson won’t tell him!)

        For example, I like the idea from the novel Bloodline (Possible Spoiler – I haven’t read it yet, but they say it is set 6 years before TFA) that it was finding out Leia was Darth Vader’s daughter that caused Ben to turn. Why couldn’t they have told us that at the beginning of TFA? Or anywhere in the movie, for that matter. Was it because the writers/director didn’t know?

        Why couldn’t Han have told Rey etc on the Falcon that all this happened only 6 years ago, instead of making it seem like Luke had been gone for decades?

        The opening crawl could have been something like:

        “The New Republic has collapsed! Princess Leia has been thrown from power after scandalous leaks revealed she was in fact the daughter of the evil Darth Vader.

        In Leia’s absence, the sinister First Order has arisen under the control of Supreme Leader Snoke and the mysterious Kylo Ren, a powerful Force User known as the Jedi Killer.

        Meanwhile, Ben Skywalker, son of Han and Leia, is nowhere to be found. His Uncle, Luke, has flown to Jakku, where an old ally has important information concerning the young Skywalker…”

  • May 14, 2016 at 8:41 pm
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    for all the people who are convinced they tell williams everything about the story going forward…. here you are.. now you can stop using the snoke theme and compare it to the plagueis theme

  • May 14, 2016 at 10:31 pm
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    Is anyone else wondering when Star Wars in Concert is happening? Their website has redirecting to the Starwars.com page for moths now with no explanation to my knowledge.

  • May 15, 2016 at 12:59 am
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    John must stay alive until IX is out. That’s a must. Star wars could die with him.

  • May 15, 2016 at 7:17 am
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    Common sense says she’s his [paralleling Leia’s child on the opposite spectrum] but my gut wants Luke to be celibate and devoted to the Force.

  • May 15, 2016 at 11:00 am
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    Seems like it would be helpful to his job if he knew the answer unless he does and they told him not to admit he does.

    • May 15, 2016 at 12:41 pm
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      He wouldn’t need it for Force Awakens. Luke and Rey, regardless if they are related, will have their own themes. As for VIII, I don’t think he will even start thinking about recording until there is a cut edited, which probably won’t be till next year around this time at the earliest.

      • May 15, 2016 at 3:43 pm
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        Yet it’s very hard not to hear the similarities between Rey and Anakin’s theme or Luke’s to a lesser degree.

        • May 15, 2016 at 4:11 pm
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          The fate of a young kid was to be a slave-scavenger in a desert planet, so someone “liberated” him to be trained in the force.
          The fate of a young girl was to be trained in the force (probably) so someone left her in a desert planet to be a slave-scavenger.

  • May 15, 2016 at 1:15 pm
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    The strongest theory regarding Rey now:

    Rey is a test tube baby created from the DNA of Luke’s severed hand.

    After ESB, Palpatine used the dark side of the Force to locate Luke’s hand. It and Luke’s saber were recovered from Bespin and sent to a secret Imperial research facility… on Jaaku.

    These Imperial scientists were trying to create clones who were strong with the Force. (Vader didn’t know about any of this.)

    After ROTJ, what remained of the Imperial fleet retreated to Jaaku, where they had a final battle against the Rebels. The Rebels heard rumors that there was a secret facility but didn’t know what was going on with it, and after their victory, weren’t concerned about its existence.

    But the research continued, and about 15 years after the Battle of Jaaku, these scientists managed to create a viable clone — Rey.

    However, perhaps due to changing political events with the remnants of the Empire, the scientists abandoned the project. They cut Rey loose and maybe bartered Luke’s lightsaber for a ship or passage off Jaaku. Maybe they left her because they feared for their lives from someone or a group of people who would come after them, and/or maybe they feared how dangerous Rey could become.

    In the current EU books, it’s mentioned that there was an Imperial facility on Jaaku rumored to be conducting some kind of secret project, but it’s yet to be revealed exactly what they were doing. From Page 9 of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens Visual Dictionary”:

    “[Jaaku] became a rallying point for retreating Imperial forces, and they fought a last-stand battle above the planet, which once held a secret Imperial research base.”

    Page 33: “Luke lost [his lightsaber] in battle on Cloud City, but someone salvaged it from the city’s industrial depths.”

    Page 35: “Jaaku was once home to a secret Imperial research facility… The Empire fought determinedly to keep the New Republic from capturing the base… The retreating Imperials destroyed the base…”

    …Or did they really destroy the base, completely?

    And in the Darth Vader comic, we learn that, prior to ESB, Palpatine had been employing the services of mysterious scientists to create replacements for Vader (though none of these people are strong with the Force).

    • May 16, 2016 at 12:23 am
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  • May 15, 2016 at 2:57 pm
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    Ahhhh, and watch as thousands of nerds transform “I don’t know” into “he does know and just confirmed it”.

    lol

    • May 15, 2016 at 10:21 pm
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      I’m dying.

  • May 15, 2016 at 5:03 pm
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    I was at that concert in Boston with the misses… the guy was just making conversation. He has no idea what’s going on, he said it himself. Then he mentioned he did not even known Leia and Luke were siblings until he saw the premiere of Empire.

    This is not news.

    • May 16, 2016 at 7:48 am
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      He knew at the premiere of Empire?!

      • May 20, 2016 at 7:36 pm
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        He found out when he saw the movie.

        • May 21, 2016 at 2:20 pm
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          How could he find out when he saw Empire? Luke and Leia’s sibling relationship was not decided on until ROTJ.

    • May 16, 2016 at 11:25 pm
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      Luke and Leia were not siblings at the time of Empire.

      • May 20, 2016 at 7:36 pm
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        no they were not, but John said he though they were up until he saw the actual movie. He said he was not happy about the way he composed Luke and Leia’s theme because he was under the imrpession the entire time they were a couple.

        • May 21, 2016 at 2:19 pm
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          Hi Raul. I’m a bit confused. You say John thought they were siblings when Empire came out. yet you say he thought they were a couple when he composed Luke and Leia’s theme for ROTJ. ??

  • May 15, 2016 at 5:06 pm
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    I think it is clear – Rey is John Williams’ grand daughter!!!

  • May 16, 2016 at 4:22 pm
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    The force did it.

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