Even though the mystery surrounding Rey’s parentage has been overshadowed by some of the other questions we have going into Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it’s still a pretty big deal. We’re only two weeks away from finding out the answer, so let’s narrow the field a bit and determine which characters aren’t Rey’s mother and father, bearing in mind that I'm not an authority on this issue whatsoever.
Luke Skywalker
This is a bit of a tricky one, since my gut feeling after seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens the first time was that Rey was Luke’s daughter. Heading into the movie, like many people, I assumed she was a Skywalker, but everything we’ve heard from Rian Johnson and J.J. Abrams in the last two years contradicts this belief. While this could just be a classic Abrams misdirection, there are some other factors that make this theory a bit less likely.
While the trailers haven’t given us a ton of information about the rapport between Luke and Rey, what we have seen doesn’t exactly look like a father-daughter relationship. Also, there’s a line in The Force Awakens that makes it seem like Luke is not the one who left Rey alone in the desert.
After Rey picks up Anakin Skywalker’s lightsaber for the first time, Maz Kanata tells her this:
“Dear child. I see your eyes. You already know the truth. Whomever you're waiting for on Jakku... they're never coming back... But... there's someone who still could.”
Rey responds with only one word: Luke.
Since Luke represents Rey's future, it doesn't make a lot of sense to make him also represent her past.
Han and Leia
Another popular theory heading into the release of The Force Awakens was that Rey and Kylo Ren were brother and sister, the children of Han Solo and Leia Organa. However, while there are some hints towards Rey being connected to Kylo in some way, them being brother and sister would make a few scenes in The Force Awakens kind of weird. While Han takes a liking to Rey pretty quickly, he definitely doesn’t act like a father who is seeing his daughter for the first time in over a decade.
One scene in the film that might contradict this is when Leia walks right by Chewbacca following Han’s death to give Rey a big hug. The Film Theorists recently made a video on this very subject, and brought up the fact that the movie's script describes the hug as “a mother’s embrace.” This could definitely be a hint towards Rey's parentage, but revealing that Rey is a Solo would be a bit anticlimactic. Since this trilogy is trying to echo the feel of the original Star Wars films, The Last Jedi is probably going to contain a big reveal in the vein of The Empire Strikes Back.
If the big twist ends up confirming a hunch that many of us had going into The Force Awakens, then it isn't much of a twist at all.
Iden Versio and Del Meeko
The latest big theory to hit the internet involves two characters who don’t make an appearance in any of the films. The main character of Star Wars: Battlefront II has generated a lot of online speculation, and as you could probably expect, fans have connected Iden’s story to Rey’s. While Iden and Del manage to build a new life for themselves by having a daughter after the fall of the Empire, the Force doesn’t seem to be strong in either of their families.
But the biggest factor standing in the way of this theory becoming a reality is the fact that the general movie-going public has never heard of Iden and Del. It would be pretty strange if Lucasfilm revealed one of their biggest secrets in a video game that many people hate.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
While I was pretty confident in the Rey Kenobi theory following the release of The Force Awakens, I have since become more skeptical. The biggest argument in favor of this theory is that both Obi-Wan and Rey have British accents, but so do lots of Star Wars characters. Rey also heard Obi-Wan's voice during her lightsaber-induced vision, but she could also hear Yoda, so that scene was probably more about the Force than it was about her lineage.
It is possible that Obi-Wan got lonely on Tatooine and had a kid who eventually became Rey's mother or father. However, most of the arguments people use to validate this theory rely on nostalgia and the fact that it would be really cool if it were true. Wouldn't it be cool if a Skywalker trained a Kenobi in the same way a Kenobi trained a Skywalker? Wouldn't it be cool if Obi-Wan and Darth Vader's grandkids had a lightsaber duel that mirrored their grandparents' duel? Yes, it would be cool, but if Rey is a secret Kenobi, why did Leia seem to recognize her? I still hope this theory turns out to be true, but right now there just isn't enough evidence.
Admiral Ackbar
So this one sounds crazy, but if you looked hard enough, you could probably find a tinfoil hat-wearing Star Wars fan who thinks Rey is half Mon Calamari. However, there is one key piece of evidence standing in the way of this theory becoming a reality, aside from the fact that Rey doesn't look like a fish-woman.
J.J. Abrams has previously said that Rey's parents are not in The Force Awakens, and since Admiral Ackbar can be seen at the Resistance Base towards the end of the film, it looks like he's off the hook from child support payments. Close call, Admiral.