Always in motion is the future, Yoda once said — and evidently, so was the Star Wars sequel trilogy's most important reveal.
Daisy Ridley in an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! this week discussed the major twist in last year's The Rise of Skywalker that her character, Rey, is the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine. Rey's parentage was a key question when the new series of movies began with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but as Ridley explained, the final answer was hardly set in stone from the start.
"At the beginning, there was toying with an Obi-Wan connection," Ridley said. "There were different versions, and then it really went to that she was no one. And then it came to Episode IX, and [director] J.J. [Abrams] pitched me the film and was like 'Oh, yeah. Palpatine's granddaddy.' And I was like, 'Awesome.' And then two weeks later, he was like, 'Oh, we're not sure.' So it kept changing."
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In fact, it seems the reveal wasn't completely set by the time Abrams started shooting the movie, as Ridley continued that even during filming, "I wasn't sure what the answer was going to be."
The Rise of Skywalker's Rey reveal was criticized by some Star Wars fans, especially because it walked back the answer presented in the previous film, The Last Jedi, that her parents were not anybody of significance. Ridley's comments only led to more criticism among this group of fans that the new series of movies wasn't planned out from the start — although to be fair, given that the original Star Wars trilogy saw Luke Skywalker kiss Leia Organa, only for her to be revealed as his sister in the very next film, planning story beats out was hardly George Lucas' strong suit, either. Brendan Morrow
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