Rey (Star Wars)

"Luke Skywalker? I thought he was a myth!"

- Rey to Finn

Rey is a major protagonist in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. She serves as the main protagonist of the 2015 film Star Wars - Episode VII: The Force Awakens, and will return in Star Wars - Episode VIII: The Last Jedi, presumably as the deuteragonist.

She is portrayed by Daisy Ridley.

Background
Rey was left behind on Jakku at the age of five by her family. She grew up to be a fearless and tough girl who lived on the planet Jakku in a broken down AT-AT. She spend her days collecting scrap metal and broken down vehicles for use of food. She dreamed of her family returning to take her away from Jakku, given that.

Met BB-8
Rey’s life changed when she met Poe Dameron's droid BB-8. whom she saved from Teedo. She fix the astromech’s antenna and asked it where it come from. BB-8 stated that it was classified, and Rey showed it the way to the town. But instead, BB-8 wanted to come with Rey. She then bedgrudgingly have the astromech to come with her. On the next day, they went for the town where BB-8 asked her whether she has family or not, with Rey reassured that her family would come for her someday.

Become First Order’s Most Wanted
When BB-8 and Rey come for selling some scraps in return of food, they didn't realized that the counter, Unkar, was loyal to First Order whom, when they turned their backs, immediately revealed her location at Jakku. To give some time for First Orders, a group of rogue scavenger sent to attack her, only to be repelled by Rey’s fighting skills. Just then, BB-8 spotted the former First Order Stormtrooper named Finn, whom having Poe’s mantle and alarmed Rey, resulting the brief chase where Rey and BB-9 finally catch up and interrogate him.

Another chase ensues with First Order’s soldiers showed up and invade the village, with them briefly hiding inside one of the tents with Finn desperately searching for laser gun. But their time for searching the weapons was up with TIE fighters gunned down the village. At first, she suggested to use her Quad Jumper, only for that vehicle destroyed by stray bolts, forcing them to stole a ship that little did they knew, was Millennium Falcon.

The dogfights ensues with Rey brought the Falcon for the remains of Galactic Empire’s remains for gained advantages. Finn managed to shot down their fighters’ pursuers before taking off to the space. Finn and Rey later declared their success before immediately goes to repair the ship.

Enlisting Han Solo's Help
During this point, Finn revealed to BB-8 that he actually the rogue storm trooper whom have gone too far betraying First Order and a fugitive, in which BB-8 feels that Finn is yet to worthy to be trusted. But with him now on it and Rey’s side, BB-8 had little to no choice to revealed that Resistance now at Ileenium System. Just then, their ship was pulled by a tractor beam of a large ship which Finn believes that it was First Order’s. But instead, when they hiding inside the ship’s shaft, the ship’s true owners, Chewie and Han Solo enters and found them. Han Solo and Chewie demand the explanation on how they stole the ship, in which during this point they realized that they now on the board of Millennium Falcon.

With the revelation where they have piloting the legendary starship and meeting the war heroes, Finn and Rey tries to convince Solo to help them for Luke, in which Solo finally relents. The encounter was cut short with Guavian Death Gang, whom loyal First Order, forcing Solo to have Rey and Finn hiding in one of the cells with him securing BB-8. Their situation turned out worsens with the party from Kanjikub, whom also have debts with Solo showed up. Worse, they revealed their loyalty to First Order by revealed that they were also ordered to hunt BB-8 and it’s allies. This prompt Rey and Finn to try to sabotage the doors to aid Solo, but they winds up to release Solo’s confined Rathtars!

The chaos ensues with both bad guys’ parties attacked by released rathtars where one of them dragged Finn away from Rey, prompt her to go for security cameras and shut the door between rathtar and Finn on it’s clutches, freeing him. They, Solo, and Chewie then goes to aboard Millennium Falcon and escaped by activating it’s hyperdrive. Although, Guavian Death Gang’s leader and a handful of his men survived the chaos and immediately reported Snoke about the mess that Rey and her allies caused.

Solo's Story About Luke's Disappearance
Rey and Solo contended with even more damage to the ship once they were in hyperspace as Finn busily tending Chewie's wounds. There was an electrical overload and a coolant leak, so Rey suggested transferring auxiliary power to the secondary tank, which Solo had also come to the conclusion to do. Finally, Rey bypassed the compressor that Plutt had installed, solving the problem and ending their imminent danger. The group gathered in the ship's common area and BB-8 showed Solo the holographic map fragment that was in the droid's databanks. Solo, who pointed out that the map was not complete, explained the story of why Skywalker had disappeared in the first place. An apprentice—Kylo Ren—turned against the Jedi Master and destroyed Skywalker's attempt to rebuild the Jedi Order. Afterward, Skywalker vanished. Rumors floated around about where he had gone, but those closest to him correctly[8] guessed that he went off in search of the first Jedi Temple. Rey was surprised to hear that the Jedi were real, but Solo, who had once been skeptical of the existence of the Jedi himself, told her that the stories about the Jedi and the existence of the Force were all true.

Rey's Awakening as Potential Jedi
Solo, the estranged husband of Resistance General Leia Organa, did not plan to bring BB-8 to the Resistance base himself, so he set course for the planet Takodana, where he intended to enlist the help of Maz Kanata, a pirate and collector who operated a pirate castle on the planet. As the ship approached the castle, Rey was taken aback by the lush green world that reminded her of the planets she saw in her dreams as a child, having never known that there was so much green in the entire galaxy. When they landed, the group exited the ship, where Rey looked out at the stunning vista that stood before her. Solo handed her a blaster, knowing she would be able to defend herself with it, and asked her what her name was. With the two formally introduced, Solo said he was considering bringing on a new crew member. Impressed with Rey's piloting and repair abilities, he said he would consider offering her a job as second mate aboard the Falcon. Rey was flattered by the offer, and briefly excited by the prospect, but she turned it down because she had to return to Jakku to wait for her family.

Solo led Rey, Finn, and BB-8 to the castle while Chewbacca stayed behind to watch over the ship. Solo explained that Kanata had run the castle for a thousand years and that she would be able to get BB-8 to the Resistance. Once inside, their arrival prompted the attention of informants for both the First Order and the Resistance, alerting the respective groups that the fugitives were on Takodana. Rey and the others met with the diminutive pirate and told her about the map to Luke Skywalker. Kanata said she would not bring the droid to the Resistance because she believed Solo should, as he had been running from the fight for too long. Rey asked what fight she was referring to, and Kanata told her it was the fight against the dark side of the Force, one that had given rise to the Sith, the Galactic Empire, and ultimately the First Order. To Rey's surprise, Finn told Kanata that they could not win the fight against the First Order. Kanata sensed his fear, and Finn finally said that he could not bring the droid to the Resistance. He left to speak to two pirates, Sidon Ithano and Quiggold, about exchanging work for passage to the Outer Rim Territories and, when Rey confronted him, he admitted that he was a stormtrooper and not a member of the Resistance, which means he now regarded as traitor of First Order that now on the run. She pleaded with him not to go, but he chose to leave the castle and head to the Outer Rim.

As Finn departed, Rey felt something drawing her towards the lower levels of the castle. She made her way down the steps with BB-8 and 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 saw Skywalker himself kneeling before a burning temple alongside his astromech droid, R2-D2, before the vision shifted to one of death: Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren killing many people. 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 Ren 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.

Rey was left shaken by the vision. Kanata found her scrambling away from the collection room, and Rey asked her what happened. She told the young woman that the lightsaber once belonged to Luke and Anakin Skywalker, and that it was calling out to her. Rey, overwhelmed, told Kanata that she had to return to Jakku, but the old pirate helped Rey finally admit what she knew all along: whoever left her on Jakku was never coming back. There was, however, someone who still could: Luke. Kanata tried to guide Rey towards embracing the Force and letting the light guide her, as well as to take the lightsaber. Rey rejected it, however, and said she wanted no part in this cosmic destiny.

Capture and Discovering Ren's inner Fear
Rey and BB-8 returned to the castle, where they saw it under heavy bombardment from the First Order. She noticed stormtroopers approaching her position and fired on them, hitting two stormtroopers before running back into the forest. Rey told BB-88 to go on without her so she could fight them off, and she told the droid that she hoped to see it again. Rey continued through the woods until she heard the sound of a lightsaber coming to life. She was soon confronted by Kylo Ren, who used his lightsaber to deflect every shot that she fired at him. After several shots from the blaster, Ren used the Force to freeze Rey in place, threatening her with his lightsaber while demanding to know where the droid was. He probed her mind with the Force and realized that she had seen the map, and that he would not need the droid—he could instead just interrogate her to find out what she had seen. Ren used the Force to render Rey unconscious and carried her to his command shuttle, which he used to escape as Resistance X-wing fighters—which had arrived to find BB-8—fended off the TIE fighters.

Rey was taken to Starkiller Base, a First Order stronghold and a superweapon, built into the icy planet, that was capable of destroying entire star systems—a power it unleashed when Rey was on Takodana, using it to destroy the Hosnian system and deliver a crippling blow to the New Republic’s government and starfleet. Rey woke up in a holding cell and found Ren inside of it. She asked him what happened to Solo and Finn, though Ren did not know—which he suggested was a sign of relief for her, as he had not heard if they perished. Rey treated the dark warrior with scorn, saying he was a creature in a mask, and he removed his mask to reveal that he was a young human man with no disfigurements. He asked about the droid once again and Rey responded only with its technical specifications. Because she refused to reply, Ren used the Force to access her mind and her memories. He saw that she was lonely but also afraid to leave Jakku, and that she saw an island on an ocean in her dreams. He also saw that she was fond of Solo and that she felt like he was the father she never had, though Ren said that he would only leave her disappointed—what Rey did not know was that Ren’s true name was Ben, and that he was the son of Solo and General Organa. After more probing, Rey began to use the Force to push back and resist, keeping Ren from seeing anymore of her memories. She turned the attack around on him and saw into his mind, finding that he was afraid that he would never be as powerful as his grandfather, Darth Vader. Ren withdrew, rattled by the experience, and left the holding cell.

Testing Her Jedi Powers and Escape
Only one stormtrooper was left to guard Rey’s cell. Testing out her newfound Force abilities, Rey attempted to use a mind trick on the trooper in order to influence him to remove the restraints and leave the cell with the door open. The trooper was confused at first and, after her second attempt, said he would instead tighten the restraints. The third time she tried, however, Rey was successful. The trooper removed the restraints and began to leave the cell. He also dropped his weapon after Rey told him to, allowing her to leave the cell while armed with a blaster rifle. Rey made her way through the base, while Ren discovered that she was missing and ordered the First Order troops to be on high alert—the longer Rey went undiscovered while testing her abilities, the more powerful and more dangerous she would become to the First Order. Her intention, ultimately, was to commandeer a ship and escape from the Starkiller, so she made her way towards a hangar where she found TIE fighters that she could steal. She was approached by several stormtroopers before she could get to the fighters, so she climbed down a chasm in the hangar to hide. Careful not to fall to her death, Rey opened a service hatch, climbed inside, and closed it behind her so she could make her way back through the base.

Han Solo's Last Stand
Deeper into the base as she goes for another way out, Rey found Solo, Chewbacca, and Finn—who did not flee to the Outer Rim after all—after they had arrived on the Starkiller in order to rescue her and to disable its shields so Resistance starfighters could destroy it. Rey embraced Finn when Chewbacca said the rescue was his idea, and she thanked him for coming back for her. With the shields already disabled as a result of Finn and Solo’s actions, the group left the base to return to the Millennium Falcon, but they saw that the Resistance fighters were being cut to shreds and had been unable to destroy the thermal oscillator, which stored the energy that the weapon drained from stars. The group decided to stay behind to help destroy the oscillator. Rey accessed a terminal that allowed her to open a door, giving Solo and Chewbacca the opportunity to enter the oscillator and plant charges. Rey and Finn made their way towards their companions and found themselves overlooking a bridge, where Solo—who, along with Chewbacca, had already planted charges—found and confronted his son. Though Solo tried to get Ren to turn back to the light, the dark warrior stabbed his father through the torso, sending the famed smuggler tumbling off the bridge to his death in the deep chasm below. Chewbacca, enraged over the loss of his friend, opened fire on Ren and set off the charges, damaging the oscillator and giving the Resistance the opening it needed to destroy the base.

Wrath of Kylo Ren
Rey and Finn ran through the snowy forests towards the Millennium Falcon, but they were confronted by the wrathful Ren who told them that they had unfinished business and now sought to killed both of them. Rey attempted to fire at Ren with her blaster, but the dark warrior used the Force to toss her against a tree, temporarily knocking her out. Finn, who was given Skywalker’s lightsaber by Maz Kanata on Takodana, engaged Ren in a lightsaber duel, but he was bested by the furious Knight of Ren and left critically injured. Ren, who sought the lightsaber for himself, attempted to call the saber into his hands through the Force, but Rey called it into hers and ignited it. She engaged Ren in combat and spent part of the duel in retreat, defending herself against Ren’s advances. The two locked sabers and Ren told her he could train her in the ways of the Force. Rey, knowing what Kanata told her, drew upon the powers of the Force and moved onto the offensive, delivering several blows against Ren until she finally disarmed him and slashed him across the face. A deep chasm formed between them, born out of the imminent destruction of the planet after the Resistance destroyed the oscillator, so Rey left Ren behind and returned to the injured Finn. Chewbacca soon arrived aboard the Falcon and carried Finn aboard, as Rey followed behind. The ship took off as the ground crumbled beneath it, and the Falcon and the Resistance fighters retreated from Starkiller Base as the planet imploded and became a star from all of the thermal energy the weapon had collected.

Rey's Jedi Order Rebuild Proposal For Luke
The Millennium Falcon returned to the Resistance base on the planet 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 with the loss of their friends. 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 found, 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 stating that "they would see each other again some day". Outside of the Falcon, General 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 her brother 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 Ahch-To, the world where Skywalker made his exile. After landing on a small island and Rey climbed a nearby cliff, where she confronted the old Jedi Master in seclusion. Skywalker, clearly haunted by the past, said nothing as Rey handed him his father's lightsaber, a symbol of the only hope the galaxy had left—the return of the Jedi. Whether she succesfully convinced the last Jedi to allowed her to help him for rebuilding the new Jedi Order from scraps once again would be revealed in the upcoming Star Wars Episode VIII.

TBA.

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi
Rey will be appearing in Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. There's a possibility of where her parents are and showing who they were.

Star Wars Episode IX
Rey will be appearing in Star Wars Episode IX. There's a possibility for her to strike down Snoke and possibly Kylo Ren.

Creation and Conception
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.

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.

Trivia

 * Rey is the first main protagonist of a Star Wars movie to be female, Rouge One being released one year after, so the female hero in that movie became the second.