Whatever your thoughts on Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker: No Really This Is The Last One: At Least For A While, it's hard to argue that the sudden resurrection of Emperor Sheev Palpatine aka Darth Sidious — and his status as the galaxy's #1 evil zombie granddad — felt awkwardly shoehorned in. Especially after trilogy predecessor The Last Jedi went to great pains to emphasize that heroine Rey's parentage didn't matter.
Now Daisy Ridley just revealed to Josh Gad, Wednesday's guest host of Jimmy Kimmel Live, that actually, Rey Nobody-Palpatine-Skywalker was one point Rey Kenobi.
Gad — who Ridley invited for a set visit with a stern warning that watching her shoot that day would spoil the movie's biggest twist — asked her if she always knew that Rey was Palpatine's granddaughter. Her answer? Literally nobody did, because apparently they were just throwing names around like a game of Space Celebrity Heads.
"At the beginning there was toying with an Obi-Wan connection, and there were, like, different versions, and then it really went to that she was no one," Ridley explained, adding that it wasn't even the plan the whole time Abrams was developing the story. "And then it came to Episode IX and JJ pitched me the film, and was like 'Oh yeah, Palpatine's grandaddy' and I was like, 'Awesome,' and then two weeks later he was like 'Oh we're not sure.'" Even up to or during filming, she says, "I wasn't sure what the answer was gonna be." (It's unclear as the audio drops out for a second, but it looks like she says "up to when".)
If you're now fantasizing about what could have been, feel free to join Twitter's Star Wars stans in your wallowing — they had "Rey Kenobi" trending within minutes.
Still got questions? So did Gad. Specifically, which human woman looked at ol' Sheev and said yes, he can put a baby in me?
"Who, exactly, is your grandmother in this scenario?" Gad asked.
Ridley just shrugged. "You tell me, Josh."
There you have it, folks, straight from the non-Kenobi's mouth: Josh Gad has as good an idea as anyone how this was all supposed to fit together.
Topics Jimmy Kimmel Live Star Wars
