Rey (Star Wars)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search
Rey
Star Wars character
Rey Star Wars.png
Daisy Ridley as Rey in The Force Awakens
First appearance The Force Awakens (2015)
Created by
Portrayed by Daisy Ridley[2]
Cailey Fleming (young)
Voiced by Daisy Ridley (Disney Infinity 3.0)
Information
Species Human
Gender Female
Occupation

Rey is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by Daisy Ridley. She is the main protagonist of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.[4] First appearing as one of the lead characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rey is a scavenger who was left behind on the planet Jakku when she was a child, and soon becomes involved with the Resistance's conflict with the First Order upon encountering Finn, a former Stormtrooper, and BB-8, the droid of ace Resistance pilot Poe Dameron.

Casting and creation[edit]

On creating a female lead for the new trilogy, J. J. Abrams stated that from his initial discussions with writer Lawrence Kasdan, he was excited at the concept of having women in at the center of the story, going on to confirm, "We knew that, in addition to Leia who was a critical piece of this puzzle, we wanted to have other women – not necessarily human, but female – characters in the story."[1]

Daisy Ridley was largely unknown before being cast for the role of Rey; she auditioned five times for the role. She only had experience with small parts in TV shows. Her inexperience and lack of exposure were a crucial part of what convinced Abrams to give Ridley the role, as the previous installments had featured relatively unknown talent that would not experience heightened degrees of scrutiny.[5] Abrams stated that Ridley "was so funny and had a great spark," as well as having her act out an emotional scene, proclaiming that "she nailed it on the first take." Abrams would go on to praise Ridley, stating "She was born with this gift to be in a moment and make it her own. She simultaneously works from the inside out and the outside in."[6] Kathleen Kennedy, the President of Lucasfilm, proclaimed "Daisy had a physicality and a self-confidence that was so important to the character we were looking for. She epitomizes that optimism where anything is possible."[6] Director Dusan Lazarevic, who was present at the casting of Ridley for a role in British drama series Silent Witness, in addition to praising her acting range, stated "She showed a combination of vulnerability and strength which gave her a complexity, and there was an intelligence in her eyes that was an indicator she could play quite a complicated part."[5] Cailey Fleming was additionally cast to portray a young Rey.[7]

Although Ridley expressed that she was "riddled with doubts and insecurities", she stated that Rey's hopefulness is what she related to most in Rey, going on to say it "was something driving me through the auditions—even though it felt so insanely out of anything that I could've imagined."[8] Ridley recalled her shooting experience as starting off bumpy, with Abrams telling her that her first few takes were "wooden".[9] However, Ridley and Abrams had an "incredibly collaborative" process with creating Rey; Ridley recalled that the character "changed from when we first began, she became softer. And I think that's probably me, because Americans tend not to understand me, so it helped, slowing down the speech and everything just made it softer than I am."[8] On her character, Ridley has stated that Rey will have "some impact in a girl power-y way," adding that the character "doesn't have to be one thing to embody a woman in a film. It just so happens she's a woman but she transcends gender. She's going to speak to men and women."[10] In an interview with Elle, Ridley would continue describing her character, "She's so strong. She's cool and smart and she can look after herself," adding "Young girls can look at her and know that they can wear trousers if they want to. That they don’t have to show off their bodies."[6]

Abrams stated that he purposely withheld Rey's last name and background in The Force Awakens, saving it for Episode VIII and Episode IX.[11] This has led to fan theories on whether she is the daughter of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia, Obi-Wan Kenobi or somebody else who is Force-sensitive.[12]

Appearances[edit]

The Force Awakens[edit]

Rey lives on the planet Jakku, scraping a living through scavenging parts from ships. She is alone, having been separated as a child from her family. She finds the astromech droid BB-8 and former stormtrooper Finn. When they are attacked by First Order troops, Rey, Finn, and BB-8 escape on the Millennium Falcon with help from Han Solo and Chewbacca. Han is impressed with Rey's bravery and piloting skills, and offers her a job on the Falcon. Rey declines the offer, feeling honor-bound to deliver BB-8 to the Resistance, but comes to think of Han as a mentor and father figure.

After convening at Maz Kanata's castle, they are recognized by both the Resistance and the First Order, and both parties are alerted to their presence. Rey is drawn to a vault in which Maz has stored a lightsaber that belonged to Luke Skywalker and his father before him. Upon touching it, she experiences a terrifying vision: she sees a war led by Kylo Ren, a flashback of her separation from her family and a vision of Luke, the last Jedi in the galaxy. Maz argues that her family will never return to Jakku, and her only choice is to seek out strength in the Force. Rey rejects the lightsaber and flees into the forest in terror.

The First Order attacks Maz's castle, and a battle ensues between the Resistance and the First Order. Kylo Ren captures Rey and takes her to Starkiller Base, where he interrogates her about the map that shows the whereabouts of Luke Skywalker. Ren uses the Force to read Rey's mind but Rey resists him and reads Ren's emotions and confronts his fear that he will never be as powerful as Darth Vader. Rey is left alone with a stormtrooper. She uses a Jedi mind trick to get the stormtrooper to help her escape. During the escape, she joins Finn, Han, and Chewbacca and watches in horror as Ren kills Han, who is revealed to be his father.

As they try to escape, Ren chases Rey and Finn and challenges them with his lightsaber. Finn tries to fight Ren with Luke's lightsaber, but Ren overpowers and seriously injures him. Rey then takes the lightsaber and defeats the already-wounded Ren. After escaping in the Falcon with Finn and Chewbacca, Rey returns to the Resistance base. Rey, Leia, and Chewbacca mourn Han's death while the Resistance celebrates the victory. She decides to seek out Luke's location, using information provided by BB-8 and the re-activated R2-D2. Rey, Chewbacca, and R2 travel in the Falcon to the oceanic planet of Ahch-To; upon finding Luke, Rey offers him his old lightsaber.

Related works and merchandising[edit]

Rey is featured in Star Wars: Before the Awakening (2015) by Greg Rucka, an anthology book for young readers that focuses on the lives of Poe, Rey and Finn before the events of The Force Awakens.[13] Rey is also a point of view character in the 2015 novelization of The Force Awakens by Alan Dean Foster.[14]

The character of Rey appears in the video game Disney Infinity 3.0, voiced by Ridley.[15]

Fans noticed a lack of tie-in toys featuring Rey.[16] Hasbro released a version of Monopoly based on The Force Awakens with four playable tokens: Luke, Finn, Darth Vader, and Kylo Ren. After receiving criticism for not including Rey, Hasbro stated that they did not include Rey to avoid revealing spoilers, and would be including Rey in future toy releases.[17] Regarding Rey's relative absence in Star Wars merchandising, CBBC presenter and voice actor Christopher Johnson stated: "It still baffles me to this day that some toy manufacturers don't think that girls want to play with 'superhero' toys and that boys aren't interested in female characters."[18]

Episode VIII[edit]

Rey is set to appear in Star Wars Episode VIII, the sequel of The Force Awakens, with Ridley reprising her role.[19]

Character[edit]

Rey is stubborn, headstrong, brave and maintains fierce loyalty to her friends. Some critics have noted similar backstories and personality traits between Rey and the two leading males of the original trilogy, Han and Luke, leading to speculation that she could share relation with the Skywalker-Solo family tree,[20][21] either being Luke Skywalker's daughter or a lost daughter of Han Solo and Leia and thus Kylo Ren's sister.[22] In comparison to Luke, Matthew Yglesis of Vox notes that "Rey is considerably less callow than Luke."[23]

Megan Garber of The Atlantic notes that Rey "proves herself to be, in extremely short order, extremely adept as a fighter."[24] Rey is highly Force-sensitive, which is revealed when she is presented with the lightsaber first owned by Anakin Skywalker, then his son Luke Skywalker.[25] Without training she is able to use advanced Jedi abilities and even defeat Kylo Ren in a duel, though he was already injured.[26]

Adam Howard of MSNBC noted that "one of the most pleasant surprises of the film has been the strength of its lead female character," adding that some have likened Rey to a "new feminist icon."[27] Relatedly, Emily Rome of HitFix claimed that Rey is "everything we wanted in a Star Wars female character," praising her for being a character that is "independent, skilled, scrappy, tough and doesn't need saving."[28] However, Rome went on to write "the speed with which Rey mastered Jedi mind tricks and lightsaber fighting with zero training is the stuff of fan fiction. Rey is geek feminist wish-fulfillment."[28] Tasha Robinson of The Verge noted that Rey "keeps falling into standard-issue damsel-in-distress situations, then capably rescuing herself."[29]

Reception[edit]

Rey has received critical acclaim, and Ridley's portrayal has also been lauded. Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal proclaimed that Rey is "a woman warrior with the stylish ferocity of a kung-fu star," praising "the verve [Ridley] must have been born with plus the skill she must have acquired as a young actress coming up in England," later adding "It's hard to imagine what the movie—and the sequels to come—might have been if they'd cast the wrong person, but here Daisy Ridley is in all her unassuming glory, and all's right with the galaxy."[30] Richard Roeper described Ridley's portrayal of Rey as "a breakout performance," continuing by calling the character "tough and resourceful and smart and brave."[31] Bob Mondello of NPR also commented on Rey's character, writing "Rey is feisty enough to banish thoughts of Katniss Everdeen from the most devoted Hunger Games enthusiast."[32] In a personal essay, Nicole Sperling of Entertainment Weekly wrote about her daughters feeling empowered after viewing the film, stating, "They never commented on how pretty Rey is. They never had to flinch because Rey was a sexual object to some man in power. They just felt strong. Equal."[33]

Some fans expressed opinions that Rey is too skilled, despite her inexperience during The Force Awakens, making her a "Mary Sue"-type character.[34] Robinson concedes, "let's face it, Rey is kind of a Mary Sue character." However, Robinson goes on to write "She's a fantasy wish-fulfillment character with outsized skills, an inhuman reaction time, and a clever answer to every question—but so are the other major Star Wars heroes."[29] Other outlets have argued that the term carries an inherent gender bias,[35] and that categorizing Rey as a "Mary Sue" holds her to a double standard as the male characters from the original trilogy did not face comparable criticism.[36] Caroline Framke of Vox wrote "While my kneejerk reaction to criticism of Rey was that it's absolutely in the wrong, I have to admit that questioning her merits isn't inherently misogynistic. The real problem is that there's an undeniable false equivalence at play."[35]

Notes and references[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b Pulver 2015.
  2. ^ Oswald 2015.
  3. ^ Breznican 2015.
  4. ^ Garis 2015.
  5. ^ a b Saner 2015.
  6. ^ a b c Plattner 2015.
  7. ^ Norkey 2016.
  8. ^ a b Prudom 2015b.
  9. ^ Bartleet 2015.
  10. ^ Yamato 2015a.
  11. ^ Prudom 2015a.
  12. ^ Watkins 2016.
  13. ^ "A Galaxy of" 2015.
  14. ^ Foster 2015.
  15. ^ Liebl 2015.
  16. ^ Yamato 2015b.
  17. ^ Gettell 2016.
  18. ^ Lambie 2016.
  19. ^ Hawkes 2015a.
  20. ^ Cipriani 2015.
  21. ^ Buchanan 2015.
  22. ^ Hawkes 2015b.
  23. ^ Yglesias 2015.
  24. ^ Garber 2015.
  25. ^ Lawler 2015.
  26. ^ Cusamano 2015.
  27. ^ Howard 2015.
  28. ^ a b Rome 2015.
  29. ^ a b Robinson 2015.
  30. ^ Morgenstern 2015.
  31. ^ Roeper 2015.
  32. ^ Mondello 2015.
  33. ^ Sperling 2015.
  34. ^ Anders 2015.
  35. ^ a b Framke 2015.
  36. ^ Lang 2015.

References[edit]

External links[edit]
Characters
Organizations
Armies
Families
Bands
Governments
Other
Characters
Starships
Vehicles
Tie-in media
Related articles
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rey_(Star_Wars)&oldid=699994488"