10 Plot Threads The New Star Wars Rey Movie Needs To Resolve
As announced at Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm is not yet done with characters from the Skywalker saga. A new feature, set 15 years after "The Rise of Skywalker," will see Daisy Ridley return as Rey Skywalker, now a Jedi Master. Other Jedi, whose identities remain as yet unknown, will be in disarray. Chances are, they won't call it "Episode X," just to keep the sanctity of the Skywalker saga at George Lucas' planned nine episodes, yet it's definitely a continuation of the universe we know and (mostly) love.
Here's where we all hope they learn from the sequel trilogy's mistakes. Love or hate any of those films individually, most agree that any problems they have arose from Lucasfilm not developing a coherent plan, thereby allowing directors J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson to seemingly contradict each other, with some awkward reconciliation at the end. "The Rise of Skywalker" couldn't possibly fill all the plot holes that ensued, but the Rey movie might need to take over on that score.
Here's a look at what the movie at least needs to address before blazing a brand-new trail. Some of these items have been touched on in expanded media, but deserve a fuller fleshing out for all fans.
Seriously, what's the deal with Rey's parents?
Rey's parents, whom she barely remembers, played a key role in the sequel trilogy by being a mystery that nobody, not even the directors, knew the real answer to. "The Force Awakens" implied she had a significant heritage. "The Last Jedi" proclaimed her parents were absolute nobodies with drinking and gambling issues. Then "The Rise of Skywalker" revealed she's Emperor Palpatine's granddaughter, which made fans do a double take, as they did not want to envision Palpatine ever having sex.
Of course, he probably would have. Rich, wrinkly old men frequently use their money and power to get some action on the side. Still, nobody wants to think about it, which is probably why Disney, via the "Shadow of the Sith" novel, revealed Rey's father to be an inferior clone attempt, or strandcast, without a strong Force connection. Though officially canon (in the same way all the tie-in novels are supposed to be now), that story, heavy with Sith mysticism, is entirely subject to revision by subsequent filmmakers. It also depicts events that, seemingly, the adult Rey does not know or remember yet.
Rey would surely want to know more about her parents than merely that one of them was Palpatine's "son," if we can really call a strandcast that. How much will she learn? How can she let it all go? How did the midichlorians apparently skip a generation almost completely? She needs to know, as do we.
Lando's daughter
Despite strong hints at the end of "The Rise of Skywalker" that Jannah (Naomie Ackie) was Lando Calrissian's daughter, Lucasfilm has yet to fully confirm it. What we do know, according to the novels, is that Lando had a daughter named Kadara, who was kidnapped by the First Order at the age of 2. Jannah, conveniently, was also kidnapped by the First Order as a child and raised to be a stormtrooper. Is it just an incredible coincidence? Fifteen years along in the timeline, somebody has to know for sure. The movie novelization arguably implies Jannah is not Lando's daughter, as it doesn't play up a familial connection between the two. It suggests Jannah merely reminded Lando of his daughter, but it's ambiguous enough that Lucasfilm could decide to retcon it if they wanted.
A lot presumably depends on what the filmmakers have in mind, and whether Naomie Ackie returns. If she doesn't, Kadara can turn out to be someone different. One way or another, though, the only surviving child of the original trilogy heroes — Wicket's junior Ewok aside — needs to factor in. Lando basically got screwed by the sequel trilogy, almost as badly as he screwed Han over back in the day. Don't let his legacy go to waste.
Din Grogu, doing good?
Two things about everyone's favorite baby Yoda-ish hero are true. One: his species lives up to 900 years. Two: there's no way Disney is insane enough to kill off such a merchandising cash cow. That being said, he'll probably still be around in the timeline, but what will he be doing? And more importantly, where was he when the First Order rose? The real answer, obviously, is that he hadn't been invented yet. Now that he has, and his story has intersected with major players, it seems kind of important that an apprentice of Luke Skywalker (however briefly), who was also pals with Boba Fett for one hot minute, didn't make any kind of appearance when the entire galaxy was freaking out about Luke's disappearance.
Now that Luke's Force ghost has his head back in the game, it makes sense that he and Din Grogu might talk. Given the latter's lifespan, he could easily be in his surly adolescent phase by then, though he'd also have taken the creed of the Watch. (Since he's beginning to almost talk on "The Mandalorian" now, it makes sense he'd be fully able 15 years post-First Order). How might he react to a bunch of new Jedi running around? With space dad Din Djarin likely quite old or deceased, would the youngster decide to re-up his Force training?
Which way did the Mandalorians go?
Assuming "The Mandalorian" doesn't end with Mandalore getting the Death Star treatment, there's a whole population of Mandalorians out there who also sat out the First Order-Resistance conflict. Granted, it didn't last remotely as long as the Empire's reign, but we're still talking about an entire race with a grudge against the dominant evil power. It's not impossible that Mandalore could elect a villainous leader, as they've done before, but even the biggest jerk with a jetpack might balk at allying with the forces of Palpatine, which previously bombed their homeworld to (perceived) death.
So what have they been doing? We know they're very good at hiding, so they might have all gone underground. If Din Grogu emerges (and he probably will because Disney likes money), he'll be the key, as he's more Mandalorian than Jedi at this point. As the first Mandalorian that we know of to not be a standard-sized humanoid species, maybe he can even open the Creed up to more aliens. How about we have a Mandalorian academy this time, rather than a Jedi one?
Wheresa Jar Jar Binks?
Many fans hate Jar Jar. A significant portion these days do not. Regardless of one's individual feelings, however, there's no dispute that he's a significant character in the history of the galaxy far, far away. Through sheer Buster Keaton levels of convenient clumsiness, he helped defeat the Trade Federation in battle; then, through misguided Senate voting, basically gave Palpatine martial law without considering the downside. He's also not confirmed dead. J.J. Abrams made a joke about putting a familiar Gungan skull on Jakku but never went through with it. Jar Jar's final fate was revealed as an interlude in the novel "Empire's End: Aftermath," in which he's living as a street performer on Naboo and offers to teach a child how to be a professional clown.
It's a tragic turn of events for Jar Jar, who is ostracized from society after being blamed for helping create the Empire. It's unknown if the Gungan lived through the First Order-Resistance conflict depicted in the sequel trilogy, but if he did, the new movie could be a place to give the character a more proper sendoff. While there's nobody left in the Resistance that he'd be particularly attached to, Jar Jar's role as a historical figure could surely prove useful to new students. Actor Ahmed Best, however, would probably much rather play Kelleran Beq.
Rey's master said the Jedi should die. What now?
Luke Skywalker was pretty adamant that the Jedi needed to end. Even when he sort of backtracked, it was to tell Rey to finish her fight, not start a new one. So why would she have started the Jedi Order again?
Kathleen Kennedy has indicated we probably shouldn't expect a lot of Force ghosts hanging around, so we don't (and shouldn't) need ghost Luke to pop up and say, "Hey, I've changed my mind again!" However Rey leads the Jedi moving forward, what we do need is a new coherent philosophy; one that addresses their institutional flaws in the prequel era, the ease with which they were duped in the Clone Wars, and the way Jedi Masters deal with students who are in the process of being seduced by dark side wielders. "Not trying to kill them in their sleep" should be Jedi 101 — it's dishonorable, even if your foe is someone as obviously evil-looking as a Darth Maul type.
Could we see the long-rumored "Grey Jedi," offering a balanced approach? Or, perhaps, a more nuanced understanding and distribution of the Force.
Finn's Force, awakened
As of this writing, the odds of John Boyega returning seem about 50-50. After "The Force Awakens" established a potential romantic chemistry between Finn and Rey, subsequent installments dropped the ball tremendously, pairing Finn with different female partners in each subsequent installment. Author Alan Dean Foster, who wrote the official "Force Awakens" novelization, saw the Finn-Rey pairing as romantic but was asked to remove any hints regarding a potential relationship from the book. As the sequel trilogy went along, the filmmakers gave us the vaguest hint of a Finn-Rose romance before swerving again and teaming him with Jannah.
It was in that last pairing that J.J. Abrams finally got around to explaining the title of "The Force Awakens" — it involved Finn and similar stormtroopers in other locations suddenly sensing they were on the wrong side. Even though he and Jannah aren't Jedi in the making, at least so far, they felt the Force telling them to leave the First Order. That set many of the events of the sequel trilogy into motion. What, though, does it signify for the Force's future? If it can be felt and put to use by not just Jedi and Sith, it's going to shake things up. There is always a balance, and if the light side can awaken the good in normies, surely the dark side has a similar trick.
Where do secondary characters go when you can't kill them?
If "The Rise of Skywalker" clarified anything, it's that Lucasfilm will not kill off any popular supporting legacy characters it doesn't have to, which is to say aliens and droids that don't age. The movie tried to shock us with Chewbacca's death and C-3PO's memory wipe, only to backtrack on both almost before they'd even sunk in. So what to do with them? Likewise, there are human supporting characters who've been spotlighted but sidelined, like Rose Tico and Beaumont Kin. They don't need to be brought front and center, but they all deserve better than Cara Dune's Poochie-style offscreen sendoff. Indeed, it's clear that for the most part, neither Abrams nor Johnson really knew what to do with Chewie and Threepio, save knowing they had to do something. Threepio somehow getting his red arm replaced off-camera during a major battle was a bizarre choice indeed.
Rose and Beaumont might be better served by a TV series on the side, although Rose might work in a Mon Mothma-esque leadership role. Chewbacca and Threepio deserve a happy ending. The neurotic protocol droid should go back to protocol, possibly on Jack Black and Lizzo's planet. As for our favorite Wookiee, he should have a real family in canon at last, so we can finally replace the images in our brains from the Holiday Special that have been unpleasantly seared.
Maz Kanata has much explaining to do
In "The Force Awakens," Maz Kanata promised that the story of how she got Luke Skywalker's lightsaber was for "another time." That time was nowhere in the course of the sequel trilogy, as it turned out. The comics have fleshed some of this development out, but it's not the only secret she's keeping. Why does she manage labor disputes at gunpoint, for example? What's the story with the real master hacker that Finn and Rose never got to actually meet? Maz's motives seem pure, as she's with the Resistance at their base in "The Rise of Skywalker" and she's with Leia when she dies. Could she have planned the Canto Bight trip as a set-up, though? And if not, couldn't she at least have told them where to park?
Maz was initially described as a pirate and seems much more morally ambiguous on paper than in Lupita Nyong'o's affable performance. Considering her establishment catered to both heroes and villains, she has to have a darker side than we've seen. Even if the character's too old to live much longer, some of her mysteries need to be revealed.
What do you do about Canto Bight?
"The Last Jedi" established that within the "Star Wars" universe, there's a planet catering to high rollers who bankroll both sides in major conflicts, and, oh yeah, their casino is built on child slavery. Surely the prequels can be our guide to the fact that leaving intact criminal systems built on slavery isn't a good idea. Not just because slavery is bad in general, and child slavery worse, but because if even one kid gets free and becomes a Jedi, he might come back and commit genocide. Do you want Broom Boy to become the next Darth Vader?
A whole lot of fans hate Canto Bight, with its arbitrary parking rules and insufferably Disney Channel-ready enslaved moppets. Regardless of that, it needs to be dealt with. Rehabilitation, as seen in "The Mandalorian," can be iffy, but killing them all is not the Jedi way, except when the enemies are sentient battle droids who say "Roger" a lot.
Look, with all the political differences and bigotry in the world today, even most Earth-based humans agree that slavery is bad and ought to be illegal everywhere. The "Star Wars" universe, which frequently presents as more enlightened, should take a stand that's at least as good as ours, if not more so. They've already had a couple of civil wars, so now's the perfect time for a galactic Emancipation Proclamation.