Star Wars: Is Rey’s Origin Story Real?

For fans wondering about Rey‘s (Daisy Ridley) parentage and how it tied into the all-important Skywalker bloodline got an unexpected answer in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. But while we now know who Rey is — or isn’t, depending on what answer you were hoping for — fans have a new question: is that origin story real?

Major spoilers for Star Wars: The Last Jedi below!

As any Star Wars fans can tell you, the topic of Rey’s heritage, how it links her to the Force, and what it means for the overall Star Wars mythos has been considered and debated since the first The Force Awakens trailers. While most theorized that Rey was related to the Skywalkers — presumably either Kylo Ren‘s (Adam Driver) lost sister as secret twins are sort of a thing in Star Wars or perhaps even Luke’s (Mark Hamill) daughter — there were those who thought she might have been Snoke’s (Andy Serkis) daughter or even somehow related to Emperor Palpatine. As it turned out, the truth wasn’t any of those things. In The Last Jedi‘s second act, during a conversation between Rey and Kylo he explains pretty bluntly that Rey’s parents were nobodies. They sold her off for drinking money and are ultimately dead in a pauper’s grave somewhere on Jakku.

The reveal appears to be something that Rey accepts — after all, Kylo had been goading her a bit prior to his reveal that she already knew the truth — even if it is the hardest thing she could possibly hear. She’s nothing. She’s no one. This young woman who has been trying to find her place in this battle of worlds that she found herself thrust into doesn’t actually have one. She’s not a Skywalker. She does not get an “I am your father” moment, but it ends up being a freeing thing and lets Rey choose her own path as well as open the door for other “nobodies” to rise.

But what if that’s not really her story? Some have already begun to speculate that either Rey’s origin will be retconned in Episode IX or that Kylo was straight up lying to Rey simply to try to win her to his side. Even though director Rian Johnson has said that he feels there is no reason to think Kylo is lying, it’s possible that he could still be wrong, and that Rey could end up being someone very significant by heritage even before her actions build her own legend. Kylo only “knows” Rey’s heritage because it’s what he saw when they touched fingers and as we had already seen in the movie, the visions both Kylo and Rey saw when they connected with one another were open to interpretation. It’s possible that Kylo saw Rey’s parents as nobodies because it’s something Rey has always feared deep down inside, that no one was coming back for her and she had simply been discarded. He sees that in her, takes it for truth, gives it voice, and, hearing it from someone else, she accepts it.

It’s also possible that what Kylo saw is part of an elaborate manipulation, much as what Snoke had already done by linking Kylo and Rey’s minds. Someone, maybe even Snoke, doesn’t yet want revealed Rey’s “real” heritage. After all, the truth of about Luke’s heritage wasn’t completely revealed right away, either. However, while there are fans who would no doubt be thrilled to discover that Rey wasn’t really a nobody, there is something to be said for the idea that the past (as in the rigid framework of The Jedi and The Sith sides of the Force) is over and now anyone, even the discarded daughter of addicts on Jakku, can be a hero.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is in theaters now.