When Rey returns for Star Wars: Episode IX, she’ll probably have to build a new lightsaber, but she also might have to deal with her drunk idiot parents who sold her to a junk dealer on the planet Jakku. Last Jedi director Rian Johnson said the fate of Rey’s family is still “open,” because he’s not involved in Episode IX at all.
On Monday, in response to a question about the future of Rey’s parents, Johnson told The Huffington Post that “Anything’s still open, and I’m not writing the next film.” Many fans and pundits have already taken this to mean that the reveal that Rey’s parents were a couple of nobodies could be reversed by Abrams. But the more interesting question is whether or not we’ll actually see them.
It seems very unlikely Abrams would reverse The Last Jedi and make Rey’s parents into someone we’ve heard of. There are two reasons for this. First, he and co-writer Chris Terrio have a lot of ground to cover in a short period of time and getting in the weeds again about who Rey’s parents “really” are again would be a waste. Second, Abrams probably knows that the decision to reveal Rey’s parents as irresponsible jerks who left her behind is more dramatically interesting than any other available direction. So, the more compelling thing to do in Episode IX wouldn’t be to create another twist about Rey’s parents, but instead to have her meet them in all of their drunkenness.
Who would make great candidates to pay Rey’s wino parents? For some reason, drunk Kristen Wiig from Bridesmaids seems like an exceptionally funny choice to play Rey’s mom in Episode IX, but it’s very doubtful J.J. Abrams will read this. Still, here’s hoping. After all, if Jon Hamm can play Boba Fett, anything can still happen in Star Wars, right?
Star Wars Episode IX is slated for release in the winter of 2019.
