J.J. Abrams Knows Who Rey's Parents Are

I'm a former Star Wars hater turned big fan after seeing The Force Awakens, especially since I'm totally enamored with our new badass female heroine, Rey. I don't really know what it is about Rey that makes her so awesome — in fact, it's likely a number of things. She's untrained yet has an incredible grasp of the Force; she's kind and caring despite everything she's been through; she's tenacious and won't give up in the face of adversity — oh yeah, and she's got a pretty amazing hairdo. But perhaps what's even more intriguing about Rey than any of the above is the secret of her parentage. We know she was waiting on Jakku in vain for her family to return, but who actually are they and what happened to them? Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams actually knows who Rey's parents are, but he's not telling us, and I can't even be mad at him for it.

Knowing that Rey's background is one of the most heavily discussed (and speculated upon) elements of Episode VII, naturally Abrams is asked a lot about it. Turns out, he's got the answers to all of our burning questions, but he doesn't want to reveal them because it's not his story to tell. After all, Episode VIII will have a new director in the form of Rian Johnson, and it's Johnson's responsibility and his honor to be able to reveal Rey's story to the world. Pretty sweet, right?

"I know quite a bit. Obviously it’s not for me to talk about in this moment because this is Rian’s story to continue now. The last thing I’m going to do is reveal something that he would be upset about. I want to make sure that Rian gets the courtesy that he showed me."

You've got to hand it to Abrams for such a classy response. Sure, secrecy about major storylines in movies is nothing new, but the reasoning behind keeping things secret is often because the studio wants to build suspense or keep audiences excited for the next installment in a franchise (not that Star Wars needs any help in that department). Instead, Abrams has had his fun with The Force Awakens and wants to give another director the chance to enjoy his turn, too. As much as I want to know who Rey's parents are, I can't hate on Abrams for being so sweet.

I suppose if there's one bit of information we can glean from Abrams' comments, it's that we'll likely find out exactly who Rey's mother and father are in the next movie, instead of it being a longstanding mystery that's not revealed for several more films. Sure, we have another year before the next movie is out, but in the grand scheme of things, it's not too long to wait, right?

Image: Lucasfilms/Walt Disney Studios