Star Wars: The Last Jedi - 8 Major Plot Theories You Need To Know

One of the big themes in The Last Jedi is that anybody can be a hero, regardless of background or family heritage. We see this reflected in the Canto Bight Force-kid, Finn, Rose, and Rey, who's revealed to have nobody parents as opposed to the Skywalker or Kenobi relations everyone expected.

But what if this isn't true at all? What if there's a bigger secret waiting to be revealed in Episode IX? The Last Jedi contains plenty of evidence to suggest this is the case.

First of all, a small detail. Most of the time, flashbacks are used whenever a character discusses a past truth, such as the flashback to young Rey in Episode VII, or the flashback to Luke's attempt on Kylo's life. If this was the truth about Rey's parents, shouldn't there be a flashback here too?

Secondly, consider that Kylo Ren is the one who reveals this information.

How would he even know this? He doesn't seem to know who Rey is in Episode VII. All the emotional abuse Kylo received from Snoke taught him how to hit people where it hurts; he knows Rey's parents are her weakness, her desire for truth and closure something he can exploit. By revealing the "truth" to her, he's only attempting to seduce her to the dark side.

There are other details, too. Kylo says that Rey's parents are "dead in a pauper’s grave in the Jakku desert", but in Episode VII, we see them leaving the planet in a ship. Then, in a chat with EW, Rian Johnson said the following...

"For me, in that moment, Kylo believes it’s the truth. I don’t think he’s purely playing chess. I think... that’s what he believes. And when he tells her that in that moment, she believes it."

Crucially, the director doesn't say that it is the truth. "For me" also implies that whether or not Kylo does believe it is a point that can be debated; this is just Johnson's opinion, not canonical fact.

Whether J.J. Abrams chooses to address this point in Episode IX, we don't know - but the door is definitely open for him.