Will the Skywalker Saga end by finally putting to rest questions over a certain character's
parentage?
According to some fresh rumors posted on the fan site Making Star Wars, there's a chance
that The Rise of Skywalker will do just that.
Warning: These are unsubstantiated rumors attributed to anonymous sources, so take them
with a grain of salt, perhaps washed down with some green milk.
In other words: potential spoilers ahead!
Making Star Wars editor-in-chief Jason Ward claims that The Rise of Skywalker takes audiences
to an Endor-like tree-covered planet immediately after the opening crawl.
There, it's said that a pair of Jedi wearing white helmets are seen dueling, a green lightsaber
against a blue lightsaber.
It's then revealed that the two Jedi are Luke and Leia, appearing as the younger versions
of themselves as seen in Return of the Jedi.
Rumor has it that this flashback sequence not only demonstrates how Leia was able to
summon the Force and save herself from certain death in space in The Last Jedi, but also
sets up a plot in which Leia trains Rey throughout The Rise of Skywalker, which leads Rey to
make an important decision following a major revelation: she's a member of the Palpatine
family.
Yep: rumor has it that Rey is a descendant of Emperor Palpatine, the villain otherwise
known as Darth Sidious who destroyed the Jedi Order, led the Galactic Empire, and was a
mentor to Darth Vader.
Apparently, Rey discovers she's a Palpatine and decides to reject her parentage, renaming
herself as a Skywalker at the end of the film, thus explaining why the movie is titled The
Rise of Skywalker.
As far as rumors go, this one doesn't set off a whole lot of alarms.
Rey's parentage has always been a point of contention amongst fans, most of whom aren't
satisfied with the idea presented by Kylo Ren in The Last Jedi: that Rey's mother and
father were nobodies, and alcoholics, to boot.
The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson has said that the mystery of Rey's parentage
hasn't been entirely resolved, revealing in January 2018 that "anything's still open"
since he isn't involved with The Rise of Skywalker.
It was reported in April 2018 that J.J. Abrams, who wrote and directed The Force Awakens and
The Rise of Skywalker, actually had a different plan for Rey's identity than the one presented
in The Last Jedi.
Simon Pegg, the actor behind the Jakku junk boss Unkar Plutt, said during an appearance
on the Happy Sad Confused podcast that what Abrams had intended to eventually reveal about
Rey's parents was, quote, "undone slightly" by The Last Jedi.
He added that there was talk of Rey having a "relevant lineage" rather than being the
child of two alcoholic traders from Jakku.
Daisy Ridley herself has mentioned that Palpatine plays a pivotal role in the upcoming movie,
going so far as to say that the infamous baddie is, quote, "very instrumental to the plot
of the film" and that there's an important reason for his return.
She told IGN in August 2019,
"It's not just like he appears again; it's all explained."
Could The Rise of Skywalker explain that Palpatine returned to lure his kin to the dark side
of the Force, leaving the Resistance that much more vulnerable and the First Order that
much more powerful?
Maybe!
After all, it could help shed light on why recent footage from The Rise of Skywalker
showed Rey wearing a dark robe and wielding a double-bladed red lightsaber.
Perhaps Rey gets entangled in a moral quandary, pulling away from the light side and potentially
considering converting to the dark side when possible temptation proves too strong.
This is far from the first "Rey is a Palpatine" rumor we've heard over the years.
Fans have been speculating for quite some time now that Rey is connected to Emperor
Palpatine, with some even believing that Rey is technically both a Skywalker and a Palpatine,
with the idea that Palpatine made Rey as a clone of Luke from the hand he lost in The
Empire Strikes Back.
It's a wild theory for sure, but it could explain why Emperor Palpatine returns in The
Rise of Skywalker: to retrieve the stolen clone and bring her to the dark side.
There's also a pretty good chance that this rumor isn't anything of consequence, and that
what actually ends up happening in The Rise of Skywalker is nothing that anyone has theorized
thus far.
Perhaps the Skywalker who rises in the upcoming film isn't Rey or even a single person, but
a new generation of Force users now known as Skywalkers.
We won't know for sure until, well, we know for sure, when The Rise of Skywalker reveals
all on December 20th.
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