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Why Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker shouldn’t change Rey’s parentage


The hiatus between The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi was filled with Star Wars fan speculation concerning Rey’s parentage, only for director Rian Johnson to definitely (or so it seemed, at the time) answer the question for all of us in The Last Jedi.

In the film, Kylo Ren tells Rey that her parents were “nobodies,” people who sold their child to pay for their next meal or drink. Despite the lack of privilege in her pedigree, Rey is positioned as the successor to Luke Skywalker and one of the heroes who, presumably, will save the day in Episode IX. The Last Jedi ends with a “nobody” boy on a “nobody” planet demonstrating his power with the Force. The message is clear: You don’t have to be a Skywalker to be special. Anyone can have the Force. Anyone can save the galaxy.

It was a refreshingly subversive message for a culture in which many popular stories center on characters of privilege or lineage.

Of course, heading into Star Wars IX, the final film in the Skywalker saga, Johnson is no longer steering the ship. J.J. Abrams, the man who first hinted at the question of Rey’s parentage as an important one, is back in the director’s chair, and all bets seem to be off.

Not least, because the title of the movie, revealed at the Episode IX panel of the Star Wars Celebration will be The Rise Of Skywalker.

Talking to MTV News last week on the subject of Rey’s true parentage, Johnson said: “I want to let go of all my expectations. I want to sit back. I want to be entertained. I want to be surprised. I want to be thrilled. I want him to do stuff that I wasn’t expecting him to do, and just go along for the ride. For me, that’s why I go to the movies, you know?”

Johnson’s quote, along with the just-announced title seems to imply that the franchise may be backtracking on Rey’s parentage. From where we’re sitting, that would be a mistake—especially if, as Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy stated at the Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, the goal is to grow with its audience.

“To keep this [franchise] relevant and meaningful to the characters and the people who are experiencing the story,” said Kennedy, “it has to be of its time.”

We are (hopefully) past a time when our culture-shaping stories reinforce the message that power and privilege can only be passed down along genetic and/or family lines—even if that’s still how it often works in the real world. How can we be expected to challenge the structures that reinforce wealth inequality in the real world, if we can’t challenge them in our pop culture narratives?

Fortunately, Star Wars is a franchise that seems to be actively working to make its imagined future more representative of contemporary today.

“Star Wars is so rich and it seems crazy that everyone’s, like, a white male guy,” Rogue One director Gareth Edwards told Slate in 2016. “That’s due to the 1970s and the fact that it was shot in Britain, but I was very lucky: I’m British, I grew up in England, and I got to see myself represented in a film. I think it’s about time that we represented the rest of the world. We were all in agreement that not just because of the story, but because it’s 2016, it’s great to have such a diverse cast.”

The cast of The Rise Of Skywalker is consciously diverse too. At the start of the panel, host Stephen Colbert talked about a franchise “40 years in, more expansive and diverse than any of us could have possibly imagined,” before introducing members of cast from different races and places.  A cast that includes Kelly Marie Tran, an American actress whose parents are Vietnamese and who noticeably got the biggest cheer of the entire line up – presumably partly because the audience was aware of the terrible treatment the actress had received on Twitter after The Last Jedi. The feeling from the audience in the room, at the celebration at least, was that Star Wars fans embrace better representation and diversity.

With Marvel snapping at its heels, Star Wars is surely the biggest movie franchise we have, and Rise Of Skywalker is one of the most anticipated films of the year. It’s a franchise, as Kennedy pointed out several times, that’s been around for 40 years, which means many parents who were children when A New Hope came out, can now watch the movies with their own kids. Kids who deserve better than to be told that you can’t be special unless you’re born into it.

While older Star Wars fans might feel a strong bond and connection with the Skywalker family, a bond which is understandable and has run through the series so far, this is the third part, of the third part, and the end of an era. It’s time for Star Wars to open its arms and become truly inclusive. Powers don’t only come from your parents. Family doesn’t have to be related by blood. Sharing the force doesn’t mean diluting the force. Rey’s special not because she’s related to someone special, she can just be special anyway, and so could anyone else be.

Here’s hoping, then, that the title is a red herring and that ‘Skywalker’ isn’t a person at all, but a movement. One that’s inspired by the heritage of Luke and family but that’s grown into something beautiful and all encompassing that he’d be proud to give his name to. I am Skywalker. You are Skywalker. We are Skywalker.

If Rey isn’t the Skywalker referenced in the title, then who or what is? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker opens in UK cinemas on 19 December





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