Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Writer Teases Rey’s Dark Heritage Was Always the Plan

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker finally hit theaters last month and provided an ending to the Skywalker Saga, which began with the original film back in 1977. The new movie was co-written by director J.J. Abrams and Chris Terrio, who also wrote Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice and Justice League. The new film provided some surprising turns surrounding Emperor Palpatine, whose appearance in The Rise of Skywalker marked his first in the sequel trilogy. The return of Ian McDiarmid was announced at Star Wars Celebration back in April, but fans had no idea how the villain would tie into the new films. Recently, Terrio spoke with IndieWire about the return of Palpatine and his connection to Rey, the heroic Jedi played by Daisy Ridley in the films.

Warning: Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Spoilers Ahead…

In the new movie, it’s revealed that Rey is the granddaughter of Palpatine, so Terrio teased that bringing the character back and making them related had always been part of the plan.

“I don’t know that I’m supposed to get into the specifics of what story points were already in place, but what I can say is that J.J. always had an idea in his head of where he wanted us to emotionally leave the trilogy, and I think he wanted Rey to have to contend with the very worst things about herself that we could imagine,” he said. “When Rey was wondering what her place in all this was — and she articulated that in ‘Episode 8’ — but she wondered it in ‘Episode 7,’ too. J.J. always felt that she should get the worst possible news. In a way, the worst possible news for the Rey of ‘Episode 8’ is that she is just a child of junk traders, which is true. That’s not contradicted by what you learn in this film, but that she’s the descendant of someone who represents the opposite of all that the Skywalkers represent.”

He also added the following about Palpatine:

“As J.J. said, that it would almost be weird for Palpatine not to be in some way in this movie,” Terrio explained. “Because when we discover Rey, she’s literally living in the wreck of the old war, the previous war, that literally the landscape of Jakku is scarred with evidence of the war that came before. I think what we wanted to say in this is that, that war never really ended. Yes, there was the victory of the greatest generation, the revolutionary generation, and that was a real victory and balance was achieved for a time, but every generation has to fight for the balance again. We were moved by the idea that the person who should have to fight to regain the balance that Anakin Skywalker gained was the descendant of his greatest enemy who corrupted Anakin Skywalker in the first place.”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now playing in theaters everywhere.