Rey’s Parents Weren’t In ‘The Force Awakens'

My, my, my. The daddy drama surrounding Rey’s character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens continues. With questions circulating around just who Rey’s parents are, many plausible theories have cropped up since the movie was released. But J. J. Abrams just blew all of those theories out of the water when he told an audience at the Tribeca Film Festival on Friday that Rey’s parents were definitely not in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And, ever since I heard this shocking news, I’ve been trying to shake myself out of a confused stupor. I mean, I guess I can deal with that, but what the heck? Because where the heck does Rey get the Force if not from Luke or Leia?

(Update: In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Abrams clarified his comments about Rey's parentage at the TriBeCa Film Festival, saying, "What I meant was that she doesn’t discover them in Episode VII. Not that they may not already be in her world.")

Especially since Luke Skywalker was the first to cross my mind as Rey’s possible parentage. What with that rampant Force raging through Rey and that very telling look she and Luke exchanged at the end of the movie, I was pretty much banking on Maury coming out in Episode 8, opening a DNA envelope, and announcing that Luke Skywalker is her father. And then there were the theories that maybe that random brunette girl in Rogue Nation would be her mother. You know, because all of us brunettes are related. Natch.

Honestly, I’m totally dumbfounded. There were a lot of characters in The Force Awakens, so for Abrams to announce categorically that not one of them is Rey’s mother or father just leaves me feeling like I’m now living in a very dark room, trying to find some kind of clue. Sure, there are plenty of people left in this galaxy far, far away for someone to be her parent (I mean, everybody comes from somebody, right?), but this news really narrows down the options in a major way. Especially since Rey’s mastery of the Force sort of implies that she comes from some major Jedi stock.

I guess there are still some options open that could explain just where Rey comes from lineage-wise if she definitely doesn’t come from anyone in The Force Awakens, but, man, J. J. Abrams sure knows how to shut down a ton of legitimate theories in one fell swoop.

Image: Lucasfilm (2)