Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker's big twist with Rey was not well-received, with the reveal that she's the daughter of a failed Emperor Palpatine clone (making her the iconic villain's daughter and grandaughter) landing with a thud for most fans. Her later decision to dub herself "Rey Skywalker" also failed to hit the mark, but there were once very different plans in place for the character.
As you can see in the video below, actress Daisy Ridley has confirmed that an early idea was for Rey to be a linked to Obi-Wan Kenobi in some way. "At the beginning [Lucasfilm] were toying with an Obi-Wan connection. There were different versions and at one point she was no one."
Rumours to this effect did the rounds both before and after The Force Awakens was released, while the plan to make her "no one" was introduced in The Last Jedi by filmmaker Rian Johnson.
Interestingly, Ridley admits that the idea of her being related to Palpatine was constantly changing, and clearly not even decided on once cameras were rolling (which explains why the movie was deemed a mess by many fans). "It came to Episode IX and J.J. pitched me the film and they were like 'Oh yeah, Palpatine’s grandaddy' and I was like 'Awesome' and then two weeks later he was like 'Oh we're not sure...' So it kept changing."
"So even as we were filming I wasn’t sure what the answer was going to be," the actress concludes.
Check out the full interview below:
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