Rey is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. She was created by Lawrence Kasdan, J. J. Abrams, and Michael Arndt for The Force Awakens (2015), the first installment of the sequel film trilogy, and is primarily portrayed by Daisy Ridley. Rey also appears in the film's sequels, The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019), and related Star Wars media.
Rey is introduced as a scavenger who was abandoned as a child on the desert planet Jakku. She becomes an ally of the Resistance in its conflict with the First Order. Powerfully Force-sensitive, Rey trains to be a Jedi under the siblings Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa. She faces adversaries such as Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader Snoke and the resurrected Sith Lord, Emperor Palpatine—who is revealed to be her grandfather in The Rise of Skywalker. Despite being enemies, Rey and Ren share a connection called a "Force dyad" and eventually join forces. Following Palpatine's defeat, Rey adopts the name Rey Skywalker to honor her mentors. For her portrayal of Rey, Ridley was nominated for Best Actress at the 2016 Saturn Awards.
Creation In 2012, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy invited Michael Arndt to write three screenplays for the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Intimidated by the scale of the project, Arndt at first turned down the offer. He accepted the writing position, however, after Kennedy explained that the films would tell the origin story of a female Jedi. J.J. Abrams, the director of the first sequel film, was also excited by the idea of a female lead character. According to Kennedy, this character, who was known as "Kira" in the early stages of production, would be "the new generation's Luke Skywalker".
The filmmakers made Rey a scavenger in an attempt to portray her as "the ultimate outsider and the ultimate disenfranchised person". They felt that someone with her background would likely experience a prolonged journey compared to other types of people. Arndt described her as a "loner, hothead, gear-head, badass". He struggled with introducing her as the main character while keeping her from being overshadowed by Luke Skywalker, whose role in the film was eventually minimized.
Casting and portrayal Abrams wanted to cast a relatively unknown actress so that audiences would not have any preconceived notions about her. Daisy Ridley was suitable, as she had played small roles in television shows, but had only appeared in one other feature film. Ridley auditioned for Rey four or five times over the course of seven months. Throughout the auditions, she felt insecure and doubtful about her ability to land the role. However, Abrams found her funny and thought she had "a great spark". He said she "was born with this gift to be in a moment and make it her own". Kennedy praised Ridley's physicality, self-confidence and optimism, traits she thought were necessary to play Rey. During one audition, Abrams asked Ridley to act out an emotional scene, and she performed it perfectly on the first take. Once Ridley was cast, she had to keep it a secret for three months, until Lucasfilm made an announcement at the end of April 2014. Cailey Fleming was cast as a child version of Rey.
Ridley said her shooting experience started off bumpy, with Abrams describing her first few takes as "wooden". However, she found working with Abrams to be a highly collaborative process. She slowed down her speech to make it easier for audiences to understand her British-accented English, and she felt the slower-paced dialogue made Rey a "softer" character. In an interview shortly before the release of The Force Awakens, Ridley said she hoped Rey would be a "girl power figure". She said that Rey "transcends gender" and expected that both men and women would find her relatable. In an interview with Elle, Ridley called Rey strong, cool, smart, self-reliant and a role model for young girls, who might learn from Rey that they "don't have to show off their bodies".
Characterization Rey is introduced as a 19-year-old woman in The Force Awakens. According to Matthew Yglesias of Vox, Rey is "less callow" than Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars film. Ridley says of the character, "It's not because Rey is strong that she's amazing. It's all the complexities of a human. It's because she is a well-drawn person who is struggling with things and you're with her." Megan Garber of The Atlantic noted Rey's significant skills as a fighter.
Rey is highly Force-sensitive, which is revealed when she is presented with the lightsaber first owned by Anakin Skywalker, then his son Luke. Without training, she is able to use the Force and defeat the powerful Kylo Ren in a duel.
On the mirror-invoking vision Rey experiences in The Last Jedi, writer and director Rian Johnson said that it represents the character learning that she has to connect with herself.
In The Last Jedi, Rey also discovers she has a connection in the Force with Kylo Ren, in which Rian Johnson claims that it was used as a way to make Rey engage with him and get the two characters to talk without fighting each other, to further develop their relationship. Johnson explains that Rey seeing Kylo shirtless during one of these connections shows the increasing intimacy between them during their interactions. In The Rise of Skywalker, it is revealed that this connection makes them two halves of a "dyad" in the Force, and the co-writer of the film, Chris Terrio, explains this relationship as being "sort of soulmate[s] in the Force" and "twins of fate, twins of destiny". Both Johnson and director J.J. Abrams described their relationship as a romance.
John Williams, who composed the musical score for all three Star Wars trilogies, found composing a musical theme for Rey an interesting challenge. He wrote what he called a "mature and thoughtful" musical motif for her, which he felt conveys a strong female adventurer infused with the Force. He added that the "musical grammar" of her theme is not heroic, but carries "an adventurous tone that needs to illustrate empathy".
Appearances
The Force Awakens Rey is introduced in the 2015 film The Force Awakens as a young adult who lives on the desert planet Jakku and survives by scavenging machine parts. After rescuing the droid BB-8, she encounters Finn, a former stormtrooper. When Rey and Finn are attacked by the First Order, they steal the Millennium Falcon and escape the planet. The smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca capture the Falcon in their freighter ship and assert they are its rightful owners. When vengeful mercenaries arrive on the freighter, Rey and the others escape in the Falcon. Impressed by Rey's piloting skills, Han offers her a job on the ship. She declines, saying she must return to Jakku. The group then journeys to Maz Kanata's castle to deliver BB-8 to the Resistance. There, Rey discovers a lightsaber that previously belonged to the Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. Upon touching it, she experiences a powerful vision, which includes an image of her younger self being abandoned on Jakku. Maz tells her that whoever abandoned her will never return, and her only option is to seek out strength in the Force. Feeling overwhelmed, Rey rejects the lightsaber and flees into the forest.
The First Order arrives and attacks Maz's castle. Kylo Ren—a First Order warlord and the son of Han —captures Rey and takes her to Starkiller Base. There, he uses the Force to probe her mind for a map that BB-8 showed her. Rey discovers she can use the Force to resist his efforts and read his emotions. Ren reports to his master, Supreme Leader Snoke, who commands that Rey be brought before him. Meanwhile, Rey escapes and eventually reunites with Finn, Han, and Chewbacca, who have come to disable the shield protecting the base. Han confronts Ren, and Rey watches in horror as Ren kills him.
As Rey and Finn try to escape the base, Ren ambushes them. He seriously injures Finn, then engages in a lightsaber duel with Rey. Initially overpowered, she eventually wounds Ren and flees in the Falcon. The Resistance destroys Starkiller Base, and Rey returns to the Resistance headquarters with Chewbacca and Finn, who is unconscious. While the Resistance celebrates their victory, Rey mourns Han's death with General Leia Organa. Rey decides to seek out Luke, using information about his location provided by BB-8 and R2-D2. When she finds him on the planet Ahch-To, she offers the Jedi Master his lightsaber.
The Last Jedi The Last Jedi (2017) begins precisely where the previous film ended. Rey attempts to recruit Luke to the Resistance, but he refuses to help. He eventually agrees to give her a limited amount of training in the Force. Rey demonstrates immense raw strength and a clear temptation toward the dark side of the Force, which reminds Luke of Ren, who was once his student. During this time, Rey feels a connection through the Force with Ren, who tells her that Luke tried to murder him. After one of their conversations, Rey says she can feel conflict within Ren, and becomes determined to bring him back from the dark side. She leaves Ahch-To to meet with him.
When she arrives, Ren takes her prisoner and brings her before Snoke. The Supreme Leader informs her that he created the connection between her and Ren as a way to reach Luke. He tortures Rey and eventually orders Ren to kill her, but Ren kills him instead. Ren and Rey then fight Snoke's guards side by side. After they defeat the guards, Ren asks Rey to join him in creating a new order separate from the legacies of Snoke and Luke. During their conversation, Ren gets Rey to admit that her parents abandoned her. Rey ultimately refuses to take Ren's hand, and uses the Force to summon Luke's lightsaber. Ren also uses the Force to pull the weapon towards him, which destroys it. Rey takes the pieces of the lightsaber and flees.
It is later revealed that Rey returned to the Falcon, then helped the Resistance fight the First Order on Crait. The Resistance loses the battle, and Rey attempts to evacuate the surviving fighters. She uses the Force to remove a barrier of stones, which allows them to escape aboard the Falcon. Rey reunites with Finn and Leia, and meets Poe Dameron for the first time. She senses Luke's death through the Force, and assures Leia that he died with "peace and purpose". Rey asks her how they can rebuild the Resistance, and Leia, gesturing towards Rey, says they have all they need.
The Rise of Skywalker The Rise of Skywalker (2019) is set one year after the events of The Last Jedi. Rey is continuing her Jedi training at the Resistance base under the tutelage of Leia. The Resistance discovers that Emperor Palpatine has been resurrected and is manipulating events from the Sith world Exegol. His followers—known as the Sith Eternal—have constructed a massive armada of Sith Star Destroyers called the Final Order. Rey and her companions search for a Sith wayfinder, which can lead them to Exegol. They locate a clue to the location of the wayfinder with the help of Lando Calrissian. Meanwhile, Rey continues communicating with Ren. Through this correspondence, Ren learns where Rey is and pursues her. She confronts him, inadvertently causing Chewbacca to be taken aboard a First Order transport. Attempting to save the Wookiee, Rey accidentally destroys the transport with Force lightning, seemingly killing him. She is stricken, and reveals to Finn that she has seen visions of herself sitting on the Sith throne.