Since her debut in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, fans have had millions of theories about who Rey’s parents are.

Played by Daisy Ridley, Rey is a scavenger from Jakku who is suddenly thrust into the fight against the First Order when she meets BB-8 and Finn. Along the way she discovers that she is an extremely powerful force user.

Fans were hoping to find out more about Rey’s parents in The Last Jedi. That information finally came when Kylo Ren revealed that she’s known all along that her parents were just ordinary junkers who are buried in unmarked graves.

This was not the outcome most fans were expecting, so writer/director Rian Johnson explained the reveal to Huffington Post.

He said that hearing about her family was “the most difficult thing dramatically for Rey in this movie to hear.”

Johnson cited the Vader reveal in The Empire Strikes Back as inspiration for his choice.

“What’s going to make life hardest on her? It would be the big ‘I am your father’ twist” he said.

For Luke, having Vader as a father was the worst scenario. For Rey, it’s finding out she’s a nobody.

“The easy thing would be, ‘Yes, your parents are so and so and here’s your place in the world. There you go,’” Johnson added.

Rey lived a lonely life on Jakku, constantly waiting for her family to return. Since joining the fight, she has struggled with finding out she has these abilities and what it all means. Understanding her parentage was supposed to help with all of that.

“The hardest thing she could hear would be…‘No, you’re not going to get the answer. This is not going to define you. You’re going to have to find your own place in this world,” said Johnson. “Kylo is going to use that even as leverage to try and make you feel insecure, and you’re going to have to stand on your own two feet.’”

The filmmaker did add that things could change in Episode IX, which will be written by JJ Abrams and Chris Terrio.

“Anything’s still open, and I’m not writing the next film,” he said.

“With all of these movies, Obi-Wan’s whole speech about a certain point of view always applies, so I think that you have to always think about the context of how information is given,” Johnson continued. “But for me, dramatically, that’s why that reveal at that moment made sense.”

Star Wars: The Last Jedi is currently playing in theaters.

Source: Comic Book