Another day, another new and exciting theory about Rey's parentage. Since the character's murky origin story was laid out in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, fans have been speculating about who exactly that family is who left young Rey on Jakku. The debut of the trailer for the standalone Star Wars movie, Rogue One , has added even more suspects to the list of Rey's possible ancestors. Felicity Jones is center stage for the majority of the trailer as Jyn Erso, a sort of space-bound delinquent, who's recruited to the Rebel Alliance mission to steal the plans of the Death Star. Jones and Rey actress Daisy Ridley look somewhat alike and Jyn seems to be about as independent as The Force Awakens heroine, so those similarities got some fans talking. It's been confirmed (lightly) that Jyn is not Rey's mother, but that theory doesn't quite fit the timeline anyway. What if Jyn Erso is Rey's grandmother instead?
That's one of the newest in a string of educated guesses about where and who Rey hails from. Amateur Star Wars detectives have collected evidence that Rey is the daughter of Luke, the daughter of Han and Leia (and Kylo Ren's sister), the granddaughter of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and even the daughter or granddaughter of a handful of other characters from the Star Wars Expanded Universe. What's clear is that a lot of Star Wars fans want to see Rey tied to someone in the series' mythology. So much of the epic is based in bloodlines and betrayal; it seems apt.
Unlike many of those theories, the thesis that Jyn is Rey's mother has been shot down by Rey herself. When MTV cornered Daisy Ridley at last week's MTV Movie Awards, she addressed the rumor, saying “I’m not being funny you guys, but just because she’s white and got brown hair…it doesn’t mean she’s my mom." Her response sprinkled a little shade on the idea that any adventurous females in the Star Wars universe simply must come from the same family.
That said, it isn't completely off-the-wall to think that Jyn Erso might be related to Rey in a less direct way than mother/daughter. Movieweb looked at the sequence of Star Wars events and the ages of both heroines: "Rey is a teenager 30 years after the destruction of the second Death Star. Erso looks to be in her mid-to-late 20s, and actress Felicity Jones is actually 32. Do the math." Unless pregnancy and birth look a lot different in a galaxy far, far away than they do on Earth, Jyn Erso is too old to have given birth to Rey.
But using that logic, she could have given birth to Rey's father or mother. If Jyn is Rey's grandmother, that rules out the Han and Leia theory. But it doesn't rule out the Luke one, if Jyn's daughter was his mystery mate. Obi Wan is still fair game as well.
Personally, I hope that Jyn Erso is allowed to be a standalone female lead in a well-crafted science-fiction film whose importance isn't decided by who she's given birth to. But if she has to have descendants, she could do much worse than Rey.
Images: Walt Disney Studios; Giphy (3)
