'Rise of Skywalker' marketing may have revealed a major spoiler about Rey

One character in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker might be a much bigger deal than most fans realize at this point. No, I’m not talking about that little wheel droid named D-0 — it’s all about one mysterious scoundrel who hangs out in the Thieves’ Quarter on the planet Kijimi. Could a new side character end up changing the entire plot of the movie? Here’s why we may have completely missed a big clue hiding in plain sight.

Speculative spoilers ahead. If you’re afraid of Star Wars fan theories based on thinking about posters and pictures of toys, stop reading.

Based on newly released, totally legit Star Wars merchandise, it really seems like Zorri Bliss is 100 percent a Light side character. Though she was described in the Lev Grossman-penned Vanity Fair article as a “scoundrel,” we all know various scoundrels throughout Star Wars have been fighting for the good guys. One of those scoundrels, Lando Calrissian, is even in this movie! What’s more, if you look closely at two pieces of new Star Wars merch, it’s pretty clear Zorri is positioned to be one of those heroic scoundrels.

First up is the new Rise of Skywalker double poster. On it, we see the good guys clearly facing off against the bad guys. And just under Rey’s face is Zorri Bliss, noticeably repping for the Light side. Check it out:

If you’re using little kid logic (which you should, because this is Star Wars), what this means is very clear. Zorri Bliss is a good guy. So what role does she have in the movie, other than having a cool helmet? (In fairness, in terms of, again, little kid logic, a cool helmet may be enough.)

Since the Resistance fleet seems to have been restocked with a bunch of old-school starfighters, it’s possible that a certain someone (cough, cough Zorri Bliss) will provide the good guys with a cache of useful ships. Specifically, it appears Zorri will have a few retro Y-wings sitting around. One new Lego Y-wing toy for The Rise of Skywalker specifically shows Zorri Bliss in the pilot’s seat of a Y-wing cockpit.

Okay, so Zorri Bliss is a known smuggler/scoundrel/thief, but she’s also being promoted as one of the good guys. If we can believe this Lego set, she’ll be flying at least one classic Rebel Alliance spaceship. Y-wings are famously equipped with ion cannons, which allow the Rebels to disable ships rather than destroy them. So maybe Zorri is helping lead an effort to capture even more ships? Assuming that the Resistance is low on ships (which isn’t exactly a stretch at the end of The Last Jedi), the Y-wings could be instrumental tools to steal a bunch of random ships for the good guys. After all, Zorri is a thief, right? Maybe she’s good at thieving starships.

Still, the question remains: If Zorri Bliss is a privateer, why is she helping the Resistance at all? Drumroll … because she’s probably Rey’s mom! It seems very unlikely J.J. Abrams would have brought on his former Felicity collaborator — Keri Russell — and not have her take off her helmet at some point. If you squint, Keri Russell more closely resembles Daisy Ridley than any other person in this movie. So even if you don’t particularly care about any of this Zorri Bliss-is-a-hero stuff, this fact alone makes it seem really likely. Kylo Ren said Rey’s parents were nobodies. But what if one of them, Rey’s mom, became a nobody to protect her own identity. And now, after being away for a while, Zorri Bliss is back to help her daughter — Rey Bliss — steal some starships to beat back against the forces of darkness.

It may not prove to be true, but when you say “Rey Bliss” out loud, it sounds kind of dope, right?

Star Wars: The Rise of the Bliss Family Skywalker is out everywhere on December 20, 2019.