The first two entries in the new Star Wars trilogy have teased fans with tiny bits of information about Rey’s mysterious past. In The Force Awakens, when Rey first touches Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber, she has a vision where she see’s herself as a child, with her parents flying away from her—leaving her on the planet Jakku. Then in The Last Jedi, Kylo Ren tells Rey of her parents, “they were filthy junk traders who sold you off for drinking money … dead in a pauper’s grave in the Jakku desert.”
What’s interesting is that these two details don’t really add up. If Rey’s parents flew away, abandoning her on Jakku, why did they end up being buried there in a “pauper’s grave”? So, who are we to believe here: Kylo Ren or Rey’s vision?
Going into Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Rey’s origins remain one of the biggest mysteries in this new trilogy. And, according to a leaked image from a Star Wars guide posted on Reddit, Rey might not have been from Jakku originally at all.
Most of this information we already know, but the language of the first point on the timeline appears to suggest that Rey wasn’t from Jakku at all: “A tiny Rey watches helplessly as a starship pulls away, marooning her on the unfamiliar world of Jakku.”
That would mean that Rey was born and raised as a baby on a different planet, then left on Jakku by her parents. This would also seem to hint that Kylo Ren was lying about Rey’s parents, because if they did leave her on an unfamiliar planet, why would they go back there and die as nobodies?
More importantly, though, why would Rey be abandoned on Jakku at all? Rey’s vision appears to show her being sold off to—or left with—the junk trader Unkar Plutt on Jakku. Based on the information from Kylo Ren, Rey was sold off to him for drinking money. But there are other possibilities, too. Rey could have been left there to hide her from the Jedi or the Sith—or both.
There’s another pretty important secret on Jakku, though. As it’s been outlined in supplemental Star Wars books and comics, Emperor Palpatine set up a research facility on Jakku to help search out old Sith relics.
The Star Wars wiki explains:
“The Jakku Observatory was an observatory located on Jakku. It was part of a network of Emperor Palpatine’s observatories across the galaxy. The Jakku Observatory was part of the Emperor’s Contingency plan to destroy the Empire in the event of his death. It was located under the Plaintive Hand plateau and housed a replica of the Emperor’s yacht Imperialis, computers displaying a map of the Unknown Regions, a storehouse of Sith relics and artifacts, and a borehole which led to Jakku’s core. The future Counselor to the Empire Gallius Rax was tasked with using the Jakku Observatory to execute the Contingency by detonating Jakku and the orbiting Imperial and New Republic fleets. However, he was foiled by Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, Norra Wexley, and Brentin Lore Wexley.”
Many fan theories appear to connect Palpatine with Rey, so is it possible that Rey—a powerful force user—was left on Jakku as part of the Emperor’s contingency plan?