Daisy Ridley Talks Controversial Decision About Rey’s Origins In ‘Rise Of Skywalker’: “It’s Beyond My Pay Grade”

No matter your thoughts on the most recent “Star Wars” trilogy that Disney released in theaters, you have to admit that it could have been handled a bit more elegantly. Originally planned as a trilogy with three different filmmakers helming each “episode,” the Sequel Trilogy was going to close out the Skywalker Saga that George Lucas began decades prior. Unfortunately, after the massive success of ‘The Force Awakens,’ things went off the rails a bit, as ‘The Last Jedi’ shook things up a bit too much perhaps, and ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ was seen as a colossal failure in nearly every way. And if you wanted to boil the argument down into one topic to highlight just how much of a clusterfuck the Sequel Trilogy turned into, you just have to look at Daisy Ridley’s character, Rey Skywalker. 

READ MORE: ‘Sometimes I Think About Dying’ Review: Daisy Ridley Tries To Come Out Of Her Shell [Sundance]

The main mystery of the Sequel Trilogy was the origins of Ridley’s Rey. Was she the daughter of Obi-Wan Kenobi? Is she a direct descendant of the Skywalker family? Well, in ‘The Force Awakens,’ it was a mystery. In ‘The Last Jedi,’ we were explicitly told that she was no one special. But in ‘The Rise of Skywalker,’ suddenly she’s the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine. Say what? Well, as you might imagine, that revelation was not well received and it seemed to undo any of the work done in ‘The Last Jedi.’ And when Ridley recently spoke to Rolling Stone about that decision or the fact that the decision seemingly kept changing up to the last minute, she revealed that she doesn’t stress too much about it, honestly. She’s just the one reading the lines.

“Well, J.J. [Abrams] was the one who was like, she is of no one, so it wasn’t just ‘The Last Jedi’ where that was the message,” Ridley said. “What was interesting about the last one, for me, was that you can be a hero and not come from anywhere or you can be a hero and come from literally the worst person in the universe. You’re not your parents, you’re not your grandparents, you’re not your bloodline and you’re not the generations before you. So, I always was like, sure.”

READ MORE: Rian Johnson Says He Wanted To Give ‘Last Jedi’ A “Hell Of An Ending” Because IP-Driven Storytelling Is Typically Horrible

She continued, “But it’s beyond my pay grade. I say the words, do the thing. I do love the version of, you can be anyone you want to be, but I also love the version where you can rectify wrongs and can’t help what you’re born into.”

You have to assume Ridley is sick of talking about “Star Wars” at this point. For years, she was constantly asked about “Star Wars,” and during that time, she was the subject of vicious online attacks based solely on the fact that she is a woman leading a “Star Wars” film. Now, she’s years removed from the franchise, and everyone still wants to know what Daisy Ridley thinks about her character in those films. It must be exhausting.

If you don’t care about “Star Wars” or Rey’s parentage, you can watch Ridley in the new film, “Sometimes I Think About Dying,” which just premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.