Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Rey and Kylo Ren Kiss Confirmed To Be NonRomantic

One of the most controversial parts about Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker‘s story is no doubt how it resolves the Kylo Ren / Rey storyline that flowed through the entire Sequel Trilogy. A lot of Star Wars fans were hoping that Rey and Kylo Ren’s story was leading to an epic romance – but instead all they got was a single kiss between the two. Well, Star Wars fans that were able to draw any small bit of romantic payoff from Rey and Kylo Ren’s kiss can now join the rest of us in disappointment – because it’s been confirmed that Rey and Kylo’s kiss wasn’t a romantic one!

The official Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker novelization is coming out soon, and advanced copies of the book were released during the C2E2 convention in Chicago over the weekend. When combing through the Rise of Skywalker novelization, Star Wars fans uncovered that the book explains the final moment between Rey and Kylo Ren / Ben Solo in no uncertain detail:

“His heart was full as Rey reached for his face, let her fingers linger against his cheek. And then, wonder of wonders, she leaned forward and kissed him. A kiss of gratitude, acknowledgement of their connection, celebration that they’d found each other at last.

But then she drew back, concern on her face. She could feel him growing cold.

Ben smiled at her.

He had given Rey back to the galaxy. It wouldn’t atone for the darkness he’d wrought, but it was what he could do.“

So there you have it: Rey kissed Ben Solo as a thank you, nothing more. Normally, we might argue that a climatic kiss in an arc between two lead characters couldn’t be reduced to a platonic “thanks,” but this is Star Wars we’re talking about. For the good of the franchise’s past, we kind of have to accept that “Thank You Kisses” are actual part of canon. Because if we don’t, then that whole kiss between Luke and Leia Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back gets that much weirder. So yeah, “Thank You Kissing” is definitely a Star Wars staple…

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker arrives on digital March 17th and on Blu-ray, DVD, Ultra 4K on March 31st.