Carlos Bastarache: star-wars-episode-7-the-force-awakens

Wednesday, 1 November 2017

star-wars-episode-7-the-force-awakens

Lucasfilm/Disney

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is entering its last six weeks of promotion before the film opens on December 15th, with a second full trailer introducing us to porgs and interviews with stars Adam Driver (Kylo Ren) and Daisy Ridley (Rey) hitting newsstands. In one of these interviews, to be found in tomorrow’s issue of British GQ, Adam Driver may have spoiled who Rey’s parents are.

Driver dropped the hint while discussing what intrigued him about playing space edgelord Kylo Ren:

“I remember the initial conversations about having things ‘skinned’, peeling away layers to evolve into other people, and the person Kylo’s pretending to be on the outside is not who he is. He’s a vulnerable kid who doesn’t know where to put his energy, but when he puts his mask on, suddenly, he’s playing a role. JJ had that idea initially and I think Rian took it to the next level. You have, also, the hidden identity of this princess who’s hiding who she really is so she can survive and Kylo Ren and her hiding behind these artifices.” [emphasis ours]

Calling Rey a princess suggests she’s part of the Skywalker family tree, because apparently everyone who’s getting into shenanigans is a damn Skywalker in this hillbilly universe.

To be fair to Driver, this isn’t the first time Rey’s been called a princess. He’s just using the same word as his Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams, who referred to Kylo and Rey “a prince and a princess” in the commentary track for Star Wars: The Force Awakens: “You’re probably going to have a castle and a prince and a princess, if you’re looking at a fairytale. We wanted to have these fundamental, not cosmetic, but prerequisite elements, these locations in which we can set our new story and our new characters.”

Daisy Ridley also dropped hints about her character in an interview with Yahoo! Japan translated by Redditor captainhaddock via Star Wars News Net.

“What you should pay attention to is that The Last Jedi is putting out the message that things might not always be so clearly black and white. The dividing line between good and evil is becoming more and more ambiguous, and you could say that the relationship between Rey and Kylo symbolizes that. Kylo actually believes that his own actions are correct. What about Rey? Will she make the right choice?”

Ridley also reiterated that we will find out Rey’s parentage, saying “I hope everyone will enjoy that moment. I knew the answer a few years ago, but the story that Rian Johnson created was so wonderful I couldn’t believe it, honestly I was very moved.”

If it turns out the moving moment she speaks of reveals she’s a Skywalker, we really should have seen it coming. After all, she makes the Skywalker face…