Looks like it isn’t just John Boyega getting honest about the lack of forethought put into the Disney Star Wars trilogy. On Jimmy Kimmel Live last night, Daisy Ridley spoke about her experience on the films to guest host Josh Gad and essentially explained in a polite way that filmmakers had no real plan for who Rey was as they were making the films, and her lineage and connections changed as the films were made.
“At the beginning, there was toying with an Obi-Wan connection,” she said. “There were different versions. Then it really went to that she was no one. And then it came to Episode IX, and J.J. pitched me the film and was like, ‘Oh yeah, Palpatine’s granddaddy.’ I was like, ‘Awesome.’ And then two weeks later he was like, ‘Oh, we’re not sure.’ So it kept changing.”
Daisy Ridley isn’t saying this as a complaint, but it shouldn’t come as a big surprise to those that are complaining about it. Rey being Palpatine’s granddaughter has been routinely criticized as lazy writing and antithetical to the character set up in both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. It’s not clear if the connection with Obi-Wan she mentions would be familial or not, but clearly that path wasn’t chosen as J.J. Abrams turned instead to the Dark Side. The fact that the filmmakers had no plan or were constantly changing it makes a lot of things make a lot of sense, especially when it comes to The Rise of Skywalker seemingly retconning half of what came before it.
While the “Skywalker Saga” has come to a divisive end, Disney is still moving forward with more Star Wars, though TV seems to be the future, with the second season of The Mandalorian landing in October and The Bad Batch in development. The studio hasn’t abandoned its Star Wars film aspirations, thought, as it has multiple projects in the works, including one from the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Kevin Feige.
