If you've already seen
Star Wars: The Last Jedi, you probably have a million thoughts running through your head right now. Just breathe, because we're probably not going to get any definitive answers anytime soon - if ever.
One of the major questions fans had following
The Force Awakens was who the heck were Rey's parents. A mysterious orphan from "nowhere" (aka Jakku),
Episode VII didn't address her lineage, leading many to speculate and form their own theories. Is she Han and Leia's daughter/Kylo Ren's brother? Luke's daughter? Obi-Wan Kenobi's daughter? For two years, fans drew up their own conspiracies regarding Rey's parents. It took a scene of less than five minutes in
The Last Jedi to shatter those theories.
Midway through
The Last Jedi, Rey learns the painful truth about her parents as Kylo Ren reveals that she's known the truth all along - "they're nobody," just junkers from Jakku who probably sold her off for drinking money. It was a heavy moment, one of great importance in the film - and one that has understandably divided fans.
Setting aside the disappointment from those who spent years conducting their own investigation into her parents, that moment in
The Last Jedi was both shocking and anticlimactic in a way where fans aren't quite sure how to interpret Kylo Ren's words. Is he telling the truth, or is simply manipulating her in order to get her to join with him? While the notion that Rey could really come from two "nobody" parents fits quite well with the overarching themes of
The Last Jedi, there's still plenty up for debate regarding the big reveal. So who better to ask than Rian Johnson?
Although Johnson admitted he has no desire to
"come in and play the math teacher and correct anyone" about their interpretations of the film, the writer/director did share his thoughts on the moment and what was going through his mind when writing the scene.
"I don’t think he’s lying in that moment — I think he is like telling what he saw and I think that Rey seems like she believes it in that moment. So for me, I wrote it as an honest revelation and as an honest kind of reaction to it, as opposed to a move in a game of chess.
"Now as we know in these movies, you know the whole idea of a certain point of view comes into play and as you know I’m not involved in writing the next movie. JJ [Abrams] and Chris [Terrio] are writing it so, I want to make it clear I’m not sure how it’s going to get resolved. For me the important part was saying it was an emotionally honest revelation, I feel like it, I don’t know, I believed it."
While Johnson wrote the scene with honesty in mind, the fact remains that nothing is actually set in stone until Episode IX, which is being written by JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio, and directed by Abrams (who also helmed
The Force Awakens). For now we have a temporary answer to the question, but as is often the case with
Star Wars, big twists await.
Do you think Kylo Ren was telling the truth about Rey's parents?