Rian Johnson Discusses The "Honest Revelation" of Rey's History in THE LAST JEDI
If you managed to get ut and go see Star Wars: The Last Jedi this weekend, I can only imagine that many of you are still reeling from the experience... good or bad. I'm sure you have a lot of thoughts on the film, thoughts on certain aspects that weren't answered. Many of these things will eventually be answered in J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: Episode IX.
If you haven't seen the film yet, I get into some spoiler territory in this article involving Rey's history. In particular, her parentage. There were some things said in the film that fans aren't 100% sure of, but in an interview with Bustle, director Rian Johnson explains how the direction that he took this aspect of the story was an "honest revelation":
The question of Rey's parentage has weighed heavy on the minds of Star Wars fans since we saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Her parents were addressed in The Last Jedi and it's not the answer anyone was expecting. It pretty much completely shattered everyone's theories on the matter.
About halfway through The Last Jedi, Kylo Ren reveals to Ray that she's known the truth all along telling her that they were nobody; just junkers from Jakku who probably sold her off for drinking money. It was a heavy, shocking, and important moment in the film and it seemed to have divided fans.
The question is, was this revelation the truth!? Or was Kylo Ren manipulating her so that she would join him? That could be a possibility. It all depends on what J.J. Abrams decides to do next. But at this moment, it is an honest revelation, and director Rian Johnson explains why. After saying that 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 say this:
"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."
After reading his thoughts on the matter, you can see that nothing is 100% set in stone and Abrams could end up giving us an "as a matter of fact" revelation. Honestly, though, I like the direction of her coming from nobody. Just like the force sensitive boy at the end of the film, it shows that you don't have to come from special circumstances to be someone special in the galaxy. It defied expectations and I loved that!
Anyway, I'm sure that J.J. Abrams will end up giving us his "honest revelation" in Episode IX. Do you think Kylo Ren was telling the truth about Rey's parents?