Rey Skywalker

"The belonging you seek is not behind you. It is ahead."

- Maz Kanata to Rey

Rey was a Force-sensitive human female scavenger who conducted her trade on the planet of Jakku, located in a remote section of the Western Reaches, thirty years after the Battle of Endor. The scavenger was born to unknown parents and at the age of five, was left on Jakku, a junkyard planet littered with leftovers from a battle between the New Republic and the Galactic Empire. During her lifetime, Rey learned how to survive, becoming a gifted mechanic, pilot and warrior. She was seemingly destined to live out her days on a forlorn backwater world, while ignorant of the larger galaxy and its perils and possibilities. She inhabited a downed AT-AT and scraped a living through scavenging parts from ships from the battle, while hoping for the return of her long-lost family, from whom she was separated when young.

Rey's life changed when she encountered BB-8, a Resistance astromech droid carrying a star-chart offering a clue to the location of the long-lost Jedi Master Luke Skywalker. She also met a renegade former stormtrooper, Finn, and they forged an unlikely friendship. With their escape of Jakku, Finn and Rey found themselves caught in a galactic war, with both of their destinies shaped by the awakened power of the Force. When Kylo Ren's First Order forces came to attack them, Rey, with Finn and BB-8, escaped on the Millennium Falcon, Han Solo and Chewbacca's ship. Chewbacca and Solo soon joined Rey and Finn and they went to Maz Kanata's castle at the planet Takodana. Rey was called by the Force to a lightsaber that had previously belonged to Anakin Skywalker and Luke Skywalker.

Upon contact with the lightsaber, Rey received a series of visions. After the vision, Maz Kanata explained to her the lightsaber's history and that it was now calling to her. Shortly afterwards, Rey was captured by Kylo Ren as the First Order attacked Takodana.

Finn, Chewbacca, and Han Solo went to the Resistance base, where they met Leia Organa, C-3PO, and R2-D2. Meanwhile on Starkiller base, Kylo Ren unsuccessfully tried to pull information about the starchart Rey had seen from her mind. Now aware of her Force powers, Rey was soon able to free herself and started looking for a way out of the base.

Finn, Chewbacca, and Han Solo infiltrated the base to bring down the shields in preparation for a large-scale Resistance attack, and also to recover Rey. They soon encountered her. After Kylo Ren killed Solo, he chased Rey and Finn. Ren force pushed her and briefly knocked her out. Finn, enraged, fought Ren with Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber, but was severely wounded and fell into a coma. Rey regained consciousness, took the lightsaber, and defeated Ren. She severely wounded him and scarred his face, but sparing his life. After escaping in the Falcon with Finn and Chewbacca, Rey set out to find Luke Skywalker with Chewbacca, R2-D2, and C-3PO, eventually finding him on Ahch-To, an oceanic planet, following the directions of the encoded star-chart.

Early life
"No! Come back!"

- Rey cries out as her family leaves her on Jakku

Rey was born eleven years after the Battle of Endor. When she was a child, her family left her on Jakku, a desert planet in the Western Reaches, for reasons that were unknown to her. She was left with a junk dealer, Unkar Plutt, and grew to become a scavenger in the junk fields that were littered with the remains of starships and other war technology from the Battle of Jakku. Each day became a struggle to survive amidst the harsh desert landscape, and she marked the passage of each day by scratching tallies into the wall of the downed All Terrain Armored Transport that she lived in, near the Niima Outpost. When she was ten years old, she made a doll of a Rebel Alliance pilot using debris from the junkfields, including orange fabric she found in a New Republic cargo container. She also owned a Rebel flight helmet that had once belonged to Captain Dosmit Ræh of the Tierfon Yellow Aces.

Throughout her many years on Jakku, she learned mechanical skills from her daily dealings with old war technology, learned other languages through interactions with offworlders, and even became a skilled pilot, despite never wanting to leave Jakku, as she held out hope that her family would one day return for her. She heard stories from the Galactic Civil War, including those about the smuggler Han Solo, and regarded the tales of Luke Skywalker and the Jedi to be mere myths. Her hopes, imagination, and these stories proved to be an escape from the realities of her daily existence, in which she salvaged parts from the ruins of downed Star Destroyers and other star cruisers in exchange for supplies from Unkar Plutt. Her skills as a scavenger were so reliable to Plutt that he ordered his enforcers and thugs not to steal from her.

Escape from Jakku
"We need a pilot!''" "''We've got one!"

- Finn and Rey, while escaping from Niima Outpost

A particular source of salvage material was the Starship Graveyard, a wide expanse of desert where vessels from the Galactic Empire and the Alliance to Restore the Republic crashed during the Battle of Jakku. One such vessel was the Inflictor, an Imperial-class Star Destroyer that crashed after its commanding officer, Captain Ciena Ree, scuttled the ship to prevent it from falling into the hands of the Rebellion. Rey climbed throughout the massive vessel and brought parts back to Niima Outpost, where she cleaned them up and brought them to Plutt. The materials she brought him on one particular day earned her one quarter portion of food, which she brought back to her home. After eating, she heard the noises of an astromech droid and rushed to find that the source of the noise, BB-8, had been captured by a Teedo scavenger, also named Teedo. Rey rescued the tiny droid and learned that it was on a classified mission, so she pointed the droids towards Niima Outpost. After some convincing by BB-8, Rey allowed the droid to return home with her for one night, before it went on its way the next morning.

Rey and BB-8 ventured into Niima Outpost the next morning, where she handed more salvage material over to Plutt. He offered her one half portion for everything, a collection that Rey reminded him was worth one half portion for each item only one week before. Though Plutt was unmoved, he did offer to give her sixty portions for BB-8. Rey was almost quick to take the offer, but she soon told Plutt that BB-8 was not for sale. Undeterred, Plutt sent his thugs after Rey to try to take the droid by force, though Rey was quick to fight them off with her quarterstaff. It was then that BB-8 spotted Finn, a stormtrooper who defected from the First Order, wearing the jacket that belonged to BB-8's master, Resistance pilot Poe Dameron. BB-8 alerted Rey to this fact and Rey chased Finn down, accusing him of being a thief. Finn explained that he helped Dameron escape from the Finalizer, the First Order Star Destroyer in orbit of Jakku, and that Dameron had been on a mission to retrieve a map to Luke Skywalker. Rey accepted Finn's story that he was actually a member of the Resistance, while BB-8 lamented Finn's news that Dameron had perished in their escape from the Finalizer&mdash;though, unknown to Finn, Dameron had survived.

The trio was spotted by stormtroopers who had been sent to Niima Outpost to look for the droid, and the group made a run for it as the soldiers chased them through the outpost. They began taking fire from TIE fighters called in for air support, so Rey led Finn and BB-8 towards a shipyard and attempted to commandeer a quadjumper before it was destroyed. With no other option, Rey led them towards a ship that had not flown for years: the Millennium Falcon, a vessel she described as garbage. Rey took the pilot's seat while Finn manned the gun turrets. Despite a shaky start, Rey piloted the ship out of the outpost and, on Finn's suggestion, remained at a low altitude in order to confuse the scanners on the TIE fighters. She led the fighters on a chase into the Starship Graveyard, where she was able to use the crashed war vessels to her advantage. One TIE fighter crashed after Finn scored a direct hit, while the other followed Rey into the bowels of a Super Star Destroyer. The Falcon suffered damage and the turret was locked into one position, so, after flying out of the Super Star Destroyer, Rey moved the freighter into position to where Finn could fire a direct shot. With the last TIE fighter destroyed, Rey flew the ship off of Jakku and into open space.

The Force within
"That lightsaber was Luke's and his father's before him, and now it calls to you."

- Maz Kanata, to Rey

Rey felt something drawing her towards the lower levels of the castle, so she made her way down the steps with BB-8 where she found a collection of ancient artifacts. One box in particular called to her, and she opened it to find a lightsaber. Upon touching it, she was immediately confronted with a vision of events she did not understand. Rey first found herself in the halls of Cloud City, where Skywalker had once fought Darth Vader before learning Vader was his father. She heard Skywalker screaming in disbelief at the revelation, as well as the words of the late Jedi Master Yoda speaking about the energies of the Force. Rey then found herself in the middle of Kylo and the Knights of Ren massacring Skywalker's Jedi, and she saw Skywalker himself, with his astromech droid R2-D2, mourning the loss of his students. The vision then transported her to Jakku, where Rey saw herself as a young girl screaming for her family to return as they departed in a starship. Finally, she found herself in the middle of a snowy forest, where Kylo ignited his lightsaber and stalked towards her. The vision came to an end, she fell to the floor, and she heard the voice of Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi telling her that these were first steps.

Capture and escape
"You're afraid... that you will never be as strong as Darth Vader!"

- Rey to Kylo Ren

As Rey was fleeing through the woods, the First Order, tipped off to BB-8's presence, attacked Takodana. She encountered Kylo Ren and shot at him with her blaster pistol, but Kylo restrained her using the Force. Learning that she had seen the star-chart BB-8 carried, he decided that capturing the droid was no longer important, as he believed he could pull the information from Rey's mind instead. He rendered her unconscious with the Force and took her with him.

She was brought to Starkiller Base and interrogated by Kylo Ren, trying to pry from her information on the map to Luke Skywalker. However, the darksider had a difficult time probing her mind, due to her Force-sensitivity, and Rey was able to reach into Ren's mind, sensing his fear of being weaker than his maternal grandfather, Darth Vader. Upon realizing that she was Force-sensitive, she used a mind trick on her stormtrooper guard, allowing her to escape. Rey then made her way through the Starkiller Base, honing her Force abilities while using stealth. She eventually encountered Finn, Han Solo, and Chewbacca again, who had come to sabotage Starkiller's shield generator, as well as rescue Rey.

The last Jedi
The Millennium Falcon returned to the Resistance base on D'Qar, where Finn was treated for his wounds. The Resistance forces celebrated their victory over the First Order, though Rey was left with a feeling of sadness. She was greeted at the base by General Organa, and the two embraced in a long hug. The events that had unfolded awakened R2-D2, who had been in low power mode ever since Skywalker disappeared, and the droid combined the information contained within his databanks with the map that BB-8 carried to show a completed map to where Skywalker had gone. The Resistance broke out into celebration over the news that the last Jedi could be find, and Rey finally met Dameron after hearing about him from BB-8.

Rey kept Skywalker's lightsaber with her and prepared to depart from D'Qar for Skywalker's world with Chewbacca and Artoo. She said goodbye to the unconscious Finn, kissing him on the forehead and saying that they would see each other again some day. Outside of the Falcon, Organa told her that she was proud of what Rey was about to do. Rey felt her fear, however, as Rey knew that Organa blamed herself for sending her son away to be with Skywalker only for Ben to turn to the dark side. Organa was confident, however, that Rey would not share the same fate as her son. Rey boarded the Millennium Falcon, took the pilot's seat, and they soon arrived on Skywalker's world. They landed on a small island and she climbed to the top of its mountain, where she found the old Jedi Master in seclusion. Skywalker, clearly haunted by the past, said nothing as Rey handed his father's lightsaber towards him, a symbol of the only hope the galaxy had left &mdash;the return of the Jedi.

Personality and traits
"Actually, the droid's not for sale."

- Rey refuses to sell BB-8

The harsh realities of a desert world like Jakku could have easily made a person cynical or guarded against sympathy and weaknesses, but not Rey. Despite eking out a meager existence in the scorching heat of the Western Reaches planet, Rey possessed a heart full of generosity and a willingness to help other people in need. It was this willingness that led her to not only help BB-8 be free of Teedo's interference and Plutt's attempts to acquire the droid, but also led her to help BB-8 in its mission to return the star map it carried to the Resistance. Though she never wanted to leave Jakku for fear that she would not be there when her family returned for her, she believed in the importance of the Resistance and its fight against the First Order enough that it gave her strength to continue on BB-8's mission to find Luke Skywalker and defeat the First Order.

For years, Rey's imagination took her mind to other worlds, including those with lush green forests and beauty that she could never even dream of. The adventure she found while helping BB-8 and Finn brought her to one such world in the form of Takodana, where she began to realize that her destiny was not in the junkfields of a remote desert planet. Her encounter with Maz Kanata profoundly impacted how she saw herself and what she was capable of, and Rey began to see that she was part of a larger galactic fight&mdash;and that the power of the Force was with her. Her recognition of these abilities and her destiny coincided with turbulence in the Cosmic Force, which for years had remained dormant, and ultimately led her to find Luke Skywalker.

Powers and abilities
"She's strong with the Force, untrained but, stronger than she knows."

- Kylo Ren to Supreme Leader Snoke

Rey honed her skills as a scavenger in the junkfields of Jakku, a planet on which every day was a struggle to survive against harsh sunlight, searing hot deserts, and cutthroat scavengers and thieves who would steal from anyone. This bleak reality, in which she nonetheless remained ever-hopeful, saw Rey develop a tenacity and instinct for survival. Her skills as a scavenger saw her earn the respect of junk traders like Plutt, who ensured that his thugs did not steal from her&mdash;unless her skills got in the way of his business. The need to survive against such beings, and the ability to traverse downed star cruisers and other war technology, necessitated that she remain in peak physical condition. She developed skills as a warrior, with the ability to expertly wield a quarterstaff against those who would threaten her. Her interactions with offworlders also allowed her to learn languages from other worlds, such as the Wookiee language of Shyriiwook and the binary language of droids.

In her time on Jakku, Rey learned the ins-and-outs of being a mechanic, and she was gifted with a seemingly innate understanding of how machinery worked. This left her comfortable around vehicles and weapons, including the AT-AT she called home; she kept the weatherproofing of the downed transport intact to protect against the climate, and she set traps around it so scavengers could not steal from her. She built her own speeder and became a skilled pilot, despite never wanting to leave Jakku. These skills proved ever-useful when she piloted the Millennium Falcon away from Jakku, and she displayed an understanding of its systems and functions with a familiarity that rivaled even that of Han Solo. Chewbacca also recognized these abilities, giving her the pilot's seat in the Millennium Falcon after Solo died and the two set off to find Skywalker.

All of these skills and more were put to the test when she left Jakku with BB-8 and Finn. Rey was forced to pilot the Millennium Falcon through the Starship Graveyard, in which she formed a working partnership with Finn when the former stormtrooper manned the gun turrets of the old Corellian vessel, and further helped Solo repair the Falcon when it was damaged. Her ability to understand languages not commonly found on Jakku came in handy when helping BB-8 with its mission, as well as through interactions with Chewbacca.

The adventure that followed her leaving Jakku led Rey to discover that she was gifted with the powers of the Force. Though she initially rejected these powers and the destiny that came with them, Rey's encounter with Skywalker's lightsaber began awakening the power of the Force inside of her. She resisted Kylo's attempt to probe her mind for the map to Skywalker, and even turned his attack back on him to discover his own fears of inadequacy in the shadow of Darth Vader. She employed a mind trick against a stormtrooper in order to escape from captivity, and her skills grew throughout her escape from the Starkiller. This culminated in her lightsaber duel with the injured Kylo, as she was able to repel his attacks and best him in their fierce encounter. She embraced these events and the abilities she was just beginning to learn when she sought out the exiled Skywalker, rekindling a spark of hope for a galaxy on the road to war.

Creation and development
"I tend to gravitate towards stories of women, of young women in situations – as I did with Felicity and Alias. And we were talking about 'Who could this be?' and I saw this young woman."

- J.J. Abrams

When Lucasfilm set out to create the Star Wars sequel trilogy, which would be released under the banner of The Walt Disney Company after its acquisition of Lucasfilm, it became clear to them that Star Wars could not just rely on the heroes of the original trilogy and would need to create a new generation of characters to take up the mantle. One such character was Rey, who, in the development process for Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens, was known as Kira. The film's original screenwriter, Michael Arndt, described Kira as a "loner hothead, gear-head, badass." J.J. Abrams, who was chosen as the film's director, quickly gravitated towards the idea of a female lead, visualizing a young woman when developing with the film's protagonist. He was further drawn to the notion that the character, living thirty years after Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi, would not know who Luke Skywalker was or even regard him as a myth. Abrams was also drawn to the idea of a female Jedi being at the center of the Star Wars story.

Luke Skywalker himself posed a challenge to the character who became Rey while Arndt was working on the early iterations of the film. In early drafts of the story, Arndt wrote that Rey's home was destroyed and she goes off a journey where she meets Luke and then defeats the villain. Arndt felt like Luke's presence upstaged Rey, thinking that every time Luke entered a scene he overshadowed her character because the audience would want to know more about him. Ultimately, the writers chose to make Luke the MacGuffin of the film, with Rey's journey culminating in discovering Luke in exile.

As the story was developed, Kira had two male companions: Sam, who became Finn, and a character then-known only as John Doe. John Doe was originally her partner, was briefly thought of as a Jedi, and then cast as a bounty hunter. He eventually evolved into a member of the Republic military, before evolving away from being part of Kira's story and becoming Poe Dameron. Kira was conceived as a scavenger in junk yards early on. At one point, an alien junk dealer was introduced into the story and Kira worked in a sort of used car lot that was run by a former Republic pilot, who was an elderly father figure for Kira. From this job, she would watch starships arrive and depart every day, giving her dreams of leaving her backwater world &mdash;a trait that made its way into the final film. Her skills with a pilot were also part of early concept art, including one depicting Kira flying a starfighter and fighting Star Destroyers. Her speeder, which in concept art also took the form of a small ship, was devised as a "hero ship," one that could show the audience something about the character and her abilities to assemble a craft through various different parts.

By November 2013, the film's costume department created its first drawings for what Kira's costumes would look like. Initially, her costume design was going to have a lot of gear for climbing and tools because of her scavenging work, but the production team chose to go with a simpler look and pared the costume down. The final design was approved in February 2014, including the goggles that she wore while scavenging. The genesis of the goggles came from the production team not wanting people to know who the character was at first, including whether she was male, female, or even human. Her home, built in a downed AT-AT, was constructed in Abu Dhabi at the end of a mangrove swamp, which was the only place that the production could find that had a clear horizon and was flat and desolate. Abrams said that because the character's existence was miserable during her time on Jakku, he wanted her home to be built somewhere that seemed equally miserable.

Casting and portrayal
"She's not a superhero. She's a normal girl thrust into extraordinary circumstances, so it's very relatable."

- Daisy Ridley

In looking to cast the new film, Disney issued casting calls for a female lead and a male lead in The Force Awakens. The female lead, referred to only as "Rachel," sought a young woman to play a character between the ages of 17 and 18. The character was described as beautiful, smart, and athletic, and it was open to all ethnicities, as Abrams sought to diversify the saga and did not have any particular ethnicity in mind for the casting of the lead roles. The casting call provided vague bits of backstory for the character, saying that she was young when she lost her family and had to learn how to survive with strength, street smarts, humor, and guts in a dangerous town. Just like the final version of the character, and Luke Skywalker before her, the casting call further said that "Rachel" hoped she would one day escape her lot in life and move on to a better existence.

Of the many actresses who auditioned for the role of Rey, the part went to Daisy Ridley. Ridley felt compelled to audition after hearing about the role, saying she had "this really weird feeling" that ultimately led her to securing the role of the saga's newest hero. The audition process took seven months and Ridley went through four or five auditions over that period before securing the role. At first, she was sour on her chances and did not believe her first few auditions were any good. By the time she made it to the final audition, however, Ridley said that it felt like everything clicked into place. Abrams intentionally wanted to cast an unknown like Ridley because he wanted the audience to discover her, and other new characters, as characters rather than as actors they had seen in other projects. After securing the role, for three months Ridley did not tell anyone that she was the new lead in the Star Wars franchise. She spent those three months training for the role after being asked to build up muscle, in order to credibly come across as a person who could lift heavy metals in the junkfields of Jakku and ultimately fight stormtroopers.

The creation of a female lead and the casting of Ridley was deliberate. Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm and producer of The Force Awakens, said that there was no chance that a Star Wars film in 2015 was going to be released without diversity and balance. With the casting of Ridley, Kennedy said that they had found someone who who had a physicality and self-confidence that Rey needed, as well as an optimism about how anything was possible&mdash;a trait mirroring Ridley's own rise from unknown actress to Star Wars hero. Ridley herself said that the character can serve as an inspiration for young girls around the world who, through Rey, can see a progressive and relatable female character on the big screen.

Appearances

 * Before the Awakening
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens novelization
 * Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens junior novelization
 * The Force Awakens: Rey's Story
 * The Force Awakens storybook
 * The Force Awakens Read-Along Storybook and CD
 * Rey Meets BB-8
 * Finn & Rey Escape!
 * Han & Chewie Return!
 * Lightsaber Rescue
 * 5-Minute Star Wars Stories
 * Star Wars: Episode VIII

Non-canon appearances

 * Disney Infinity 3.0