J.J. Abrams' Plan For Rey's Parentage Was Reportedly Different From The Last Jedi

The mystery behind Rey's parentage has buzzed around in Star Wars fans' minds since director J.J. Abrams' The Force Awakens introduced us to Daisy Ridley's scrappy Jakku-born scavenger. That film explained that Rey's parents orphaned her as a child, though audiences never learned their names or saw their faces. Then writer-director Rian Johnson's The Last Jedi presented a more concrete answer to the question of Rey's real origins: her parents, as Adam Driver's Kylo Ren explains in a tense scene, were insignificant, low-life junkers.

But apparently, that's not what Abrams had in mind when he was thinking of how to answer the "Who are Rey's mother and father?" question. According to actor Simon Pegg, who played Unkar Plutt in The Force Awakens, Abrams' initial plan for Rey's parentage was different to what we saw in The Last Jedi. 

"I know what J.J. kind of intended, or at least what was sort of being chucked around. I think that's kind of been undone slightly by [The Last Jedi]," Pegg revealed on MTV correspondent Josh Horowitz's Happy Sad Confused podcast. To cut any possible tension from the bomb drop, the actor added with a laugh, "I think Unkar Plutt is Rey's real father."

Pegg then went on to mention that the answer Abrams was considering would have had a larger impact and carried greater weight than the story Johnson chose to tell in The Last Jedi. Whether Abrams meant for the trilogy to eventually reveal Rey as a descendant of the Skywalker clan or a member of the Kenobi family tree remains a mystery, but Pegg did state that she would have had a "relevant lineage" as opposed to being the daughter of a pair of total nobodies.

"There was some talk about, you know, a kind of relevant lineage for her," the actor said, though he admitted that he isn't certain "if anybody knows" exactly what could have been if Abrams had written and directed The Last Jedi. 

If you watch The Force Awakens back carefully, you'll notice glimmers of what seems to be Abrams' original idea for who Rey's parents really are. She's seen bonding with Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and hugging Leia (Carrie Fisher) — even before Leia's old friend Chewbacca got so much as a head tilt of acknowledgement — which could mean that Abrams intended for Rey to be related to Han and Leia to a certain degree. 

Some may assume that everything is set in stone when it comes to Rey's parentage, but that isn't the case. Johnson previously revealed that "anything's still open" when it comes to who Rey really is and where she truly came from. And just as Johnson took over the story from Abrams after The Force Awakens, Abrams is grabbing the baton and stepping back into the director's seat for Episode IX. Abrams may very well undo what was revealed in The Last Jedi, delivering a twist that allows his original vision for Rey's origins (whatever that may be) to come full circle. On the other hand, there's also a chance Abrams will simply stick with Johnson's explanation. 

All will (hopefully) be revealed when Star Wars: Episode IX is released on December 20, 2019.