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Rey (Star Wars)

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Rey
Star Wars character
Daisy Ridley as Rey in The Force Awakens
First appearanceThe Force Awakens (2015)
Created by
Portrayed byDaisy Ridley[2]
Voiced byDaisy Ridley (Disney Infinity 3.0)
In-universe information
SpeciesHuman
GenderFemale
Occupation
FamilyUnknown

Rey is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by Daisy Ridley.[4] She is the main protagonist of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.[5] First appearing as one of the lead characters in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rey is a scavenger who was left behind (for protection) on the planet Jakku when she was a child, and 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

On creating a female lead for the new trilogy, J. J. Abrams stated: "From the beginning of discussions [with writer Lawrence Kasdan], the notion of a woman at the center of the story was always something that was compelling and exciting to me. And not just at the centre. 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.[6] Abrams described, "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. Her eyes and face can one moment radiate joy and a lust for life, and then suddenly there was strength in it, and another moment she could be brave, then defiant, then racked with guilt and despair. There was a whole range where she could go with authenticity and conviction."[1] 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."[7] On what she relates to most in Rey, Ridley stated, "Her hopefulness. I think that was something driving me through the auditions — even though it felt so insanely out of anything that I could’ve imagined, there was something inside of me that was telling me that I could do it, even though I was riddled with doubts and insecurities."[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, "She will have some impact in a girl power-y way. She's brave and she's vulnerable and she's so nuanced... She 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 commented on Rey, "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."[7]

Appearances

The Force Awakens

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 whereabouts of Luke Skywalker. Ren attempts to use the Force to access Rey's mind, and is astonished to discover that she is able to resist him. Rey proves to be a quick study; after Ren leaves her alone with a stormtrooper, she uses a Jedi mind trick to get the stormtrooper to help her escape. During the escape, she joins with Finn, 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. 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 an unknown planet; upon finding Luke, Rey offers him his old lightsaber.

In other media

The character of Rey appears in the video game Disney Infinity 3.0, voiced by Ridley.[11]

Character

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,[4][12] either being Luke Skywalker's daughter or a lost daughter of Han Solo and Leia and thus Kylo Ren's sister.[13] Another theory is that she is Obi Wan Kenobi's granddaughter.[13]

Megan Garber of The Atlantic notes that Rey "proves herself to be, in extremely short order, extremely adept as a fighter."[14] 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.[15] Without training, she is able to use advanced Jedi abilities, as well as defeating Kylo Ren in a duel, though Ren was already injured beforehand.[16]

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."[17] 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."[18] 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."[18] Tasha Robinson of The Verge noted that Rey "keeps falling into standard-issue damsel-in-distress situations, then capably rescuing herself."[19] Some fans expressed opinions that Rey is too skilled, despite her inexperience during The Force Awakens, making her a "Mary Sue"-type character.[20] 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."[19] In a personal essay, Nicole Sperling of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Leaving the theater, my girls felt as empowered as their brother usually does after seeing one of the many blockbusters built for him. 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."[21]

Reception

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, except that she does it without wires. Instead, Ms. Ridley deploys the verve she must have been born with plus the skill she must have acquired as a young actress coming up in England. (In one beautiful scene, Rey discovers her hitherto unsuspected powers while Dan Mindel's camera watches, motionless.) 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."[22] Richard Roeper wrote, "The British actress Daisy Ridley, bearing more than a slight resemblance to Keira Knightley, has a breakout performance as Rey, a plucky scavenger on the junkyard wasteland planet Jakku. Like many of her generation, Rey isn't even sure if the Force is an actual thing, or if Han Solo and Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia are real people or the stuff of myth." He continues, "Rey is tough and resourceful and smart and brave".[23] Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian also favorably compared Ridley's performance to that of Keira Knightley's, who had played a decoy to Padme Amidala in The Phantom Menace.[24] Bob Mondello of NPR writes, "I shouldn't — and won't — talk about what any of [the characters] do for the film's 135 minutes. Let me just say that they do it really well: Rey is feisty enough to banish thoughts of Katniss Everdeen from the most devoted Hunger Games enthusiast".[25]

References

  1. ^ a b c Pulver 2015.
  2. ^ Oswald 2015.
  3. ^ Breznican 2015.
  4. ^ a b Cipriani 2015.
  5. ^ Garis 2015.
  6. ^ Saner 2015.
  7. ^ a b Plattner 2015.
  8. ^ a b Prudom 2015.
  9. ^ Bartleet 2015.
  10. ^ Yamato 2015.
  11. ^ Liebl 2015.
  12. ^ Buchanan 2015.
  13. ^ a b Hawkes 2015.
  14. ^ Garber 2015.
  15. ^ Lawler 2015.
  16. ^ Cusamano 2015.
  17. ^ Howard 2015.
  18. ^ a b Rome 2015.
  19. ^ a b Robinson 2015.
  20. ^ Anders 2015.
  21. ^ Sperling 2015.
  22. ^ Morgenstern 2015.
  23. ^ Roeper 2015.
  24. ^ Bradshaw 2015.
  25. ^ Mondello 2015.

Notes

Template:Episode VII

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