She’s Not Just a Skywalker: She’s THE Skywalker

Rey, Anakin, Kamino, and the quest to change a destiny

On a desert world, a child is in a state of despair, questioning their parentage. This child exhibits skills that few others can hope to comprehend and an abnormal predilection for flight. Hence begins every trilogy of the Star Wars series, a story about the Skywalker family and their relentless battle with the dark and light sides of the force.

Viewing this pattern, it seems clear that Rey is the next generation of Skywalker, a child of most likely Luke or potentially Leia. At the end of the day, I both simultaneously believe that this is the likely route the writers will take and the LEAST likely because of its obviousness. The writers are under immense pressure to do something cool here: making Rey Luke’s daughter makes sense — no one would find it terribly odd — but it’s boring as hell.

So if this a story about the Skywalkers, if Rey bears a striking similarity to Anakin and Luke, then what else could it be? The answer could potentially be a product of assembling evidence from across all seven films: Rey is Anakin’s altered clone.

From a technological standpoint, this may not make sense in our world, but in the world of Star Wars it makes total sense. Episode 2 introduces us to the extremely engaging and yet fairly underutilized world of Kamino, a civilization whose chief export is clones. The issue of Rey being a girl and Anakin being a boy wouldn’t even be a problem for them, as Kamino is already engaged in altering the DNA of the clone army in Episode 2 on a far more complex level. Obi Wan also forms a decent relationship with the Kamino cloners in Episode 2, which would create an opening for him (or his protege) to approach them at a later time. While unlikely, there’s even the possibility that Rey is a product of growth deceleration and was created by Obi Wan rather than Luke. The Kamino cloners did the opposite with the Jango clones, so there’s no reason to believe they couldn’t also do this.

Anakin’s DNA is also literally spilled across almost every episode of the Star Wars series. There would be no shortage of supply for the cloners on Kamino. They could use the blood sample from episode one, his severed hand from episode two, his severed legs from episode three, or his recently deceased corpse from episode six. Obi Wan and/or Luke have had almost exclusive access to these things and would be able to quite easily store Anakin’s DNA for immediate or eventual use.

So with the science out of the way, there’s the issue of explaining how Rey bears similarity after similarity to Anakin, in a way that a granddaughter wouldn’t, but a clone would. This is surprisingly easy to do.

First, Rey is bizarrely adept when it comes to flight. She argues that she’s never been off the planet before, and has never flown the Falcon (“this thing hasn’t flown in years”), and yet she is able to maneuver the ship through the decaying hull of a star destroyer. Given, she probably knows these wrecks like the palm of her hand, but the lightning fast reflexes it would take to execute seem to be unlike any other we’ve seen, except in the only human who could fly a pod racer. The Kenobi theorists, whom I adore greatly, really lose traction here, as Obi Wan is vocal about how much he deplores flying.

In addition to the seemingly innate ability to pilot ships, Rey and Anakin also share a dark side that Luke just seems to lack. They both use the force for their own means against others, Rey with the guard when she’s captive and Anakin countless times, but notably with the Tuscan Raiders. Sure, Rey is fighting for her basic survival, but there are moments in Daisy Ridley’s performance with the guard that indicate she enjoys her ability to control him. Does he need to drop his weapon? She never uses it, so no, but she enjoys the ability to make him do it in a way of that Luke never did. She also paces in front of a clearly beaten Kylo Ren in a way that is far more indicative of a Sith than a Jedi, and the musical score seems to support this.

Similarity can also be viewed on a narrative level, examining clues and choices of the filmmakers to inform the theorizing of the public. While there’s no reason to think that a clone would have lifestyle similarities to their original version were placed in different circumstances, a filmmaker might create these similarities to imbed narrative clues. In this line of thinking, we see that Anakin and Rey are visually represented the same, down to their costuming and setting. They also each have their own similar enslavers in Watto and Unkar Plutt, both Junkers who rely on the skills of the protagonist to further themselves financially, but who also seem to have an underlying affinity for the protagonist, which is present far more in the novelization of The Force Awakens than in the film.

Similarly, Watto wants the dice to fall in favor of him keeping Anakin rather than Shmi and is noticeably irritated when Qui-Gon manipulates the outcome. He even sells Shmi later on, suggesting that he cared about her far less. Perhaps you might argue that this is due to Anakin’s ability to procure him wins in the podrace, but it’s established early on that Anakin has never been a lucrative bet in the podraces prior to his race in episode one. Watto doesn’t even bet on him.

Then there’s the question of why? Why would Luke or Obi Wan, both knowing the risks, feel an urge to clone a man that they know to be volatile? This lies in both characters’ relationships with Anakin. Let’s begin with Obi Wan, even though the growth deceleration element makes this unlikely. Obi Wan loved Anakin. He was like a brother to him. Part of Obi Wan wondered if, had he been developmentally ready to take on an apprentice when he did, it would’ve made a difference in Anakin’s ultimate result. He voices this internal conflict posthumously on Degobah. Also, he always thought Anakin was too old to begin training, but what if he could have Anakin from birth? Would it change Anakin’s unfortunate outcome?

All that said, the more likely scenario is that Luke created Rey some years after the death of his father. But why? Well, Luke has a complicated relationship with Anakin as well. Since becoming a Jedi, he’s been told that his father was a “good man”, and yet he barely gets a chance to meet that “good man” before he dies. The urge to truly know and understand his father, as others knew him, could drive him to desperate means. Look at children with absent fathers in our society. Sometimes these people go to enormous lengths simply to obtain a name and a face for the father they never knew, and none of them have access to the resources that Luke does.

Additionally, Luke is trying to create a new race of Jedi out of literally nothing. Presumably, the Jedi of Mace Windu and Yoda’s generation had a well oiled screening and recruitment process, but Luke is totally on his own, searching for needles in haystacks across an entire galaxy. When his own nephew turned out to be a disappointment, Luke might’ve found himself desperately searching for any worthy padawan to train. Finding no one, it’s entirely possible that he’d turn to more scientific means of assuring the powers of the Jedi continued on to future generations, especially one that would not only enable him to “pass on what [he had] learned”, but would literally be a Skywalker. As a Jedi knight, it’s unlikely he’d have slept with anyone, but there’s no reason he wouldn’t have hunted down other options.

Lastly, this option gains its validity from the narrative promise it presents for the upcoming two episodes. Any option that doesn’t present the writers, directors, and actors with considerable depth would be quickly discarded. This option is abundant in its possibility.

First, there’s the issue of Kylo/Ben. If this series isn’t about swaying Kylo back into Ben, it will entirely have missed the narrative boat. With that in mind, they’ve spent considerable time in episode seven establishing Kylo’s hero worship of his grandfather. If Rey is the clone of his mentor, she stands the best chance of persuading him back to the light.

There’s also the issue that this new version needs to tread on new ground to avoid conjuring a yawn factor from fans. We’ve never watched a force sensitive person truly grapple with the seduction of the dark side and successfully resist it. Rey presents that opportunity and is already trending that way. As Anakin’s clone, it provides the audience an interesting “what if”, provided she is delivered from the evil through her own choices.

JJ Abrams and Disney also have a unique opportunity here. It’s one thing to prove that the Star Wars franchise has legs after the mediocrity of the prequels, but it’s an even more challenging but admirable goal to seek to improve the relevance and quality of the prequels through their work in episodes 7–9. If Rey is a clone, it forces fans to go back and view Anakin in a whole new light, perhaps one that is more forgiving. It also increases the relevance of the plot of episode two, further developing Kamino. Doing this would not only improve the storyline going forward, but would intensify the continuity of all nine films and pay homage to Lucas, honoring the story he wanted to tell.

Also, the reveal would just be spectacular. What if Rey’s spent over a decade on a planet waiting for parents that simply do not exist? That’s good character conflict. Saddling her character with the past sins of her blood would also provide an instant man vs self conflict. Furthermore, the opening for an excellent twist on the “I am your father” line is almost too good to pass up. Why would any writer or director abandon such powerful possibility?

I leave this essay with probably the most concrete piece of evidence: R2-D2 and the lightsaber. I’ve grappled with these in every theory I’ve read or considered. They seem to be blatant proof that Rey is Luke’s daughter. Why does R2 awake upon Rey’s arrival? Why is she able to summon the lightsaber? The ostensible answer seems to be that Luke is her dad. Again, I just think it’s too easy. Also, are R2 and the lightsaber really Luke’s? No, not really.

In the timeline of Star Wars, both R2 and the lightsaber belong to Luke for a relatively short amount of time. But from whom were they hand-me-downs? Anakin in both situations. R2 is with Anakin since the escape from Naboo in episode one. Anakin fights through the entirety of the clone wars with that lightsaber. If either object is innately connected to someone, it’s Anakin and not Luke. They’ve spent far more time in Anakin’s possession, particularly the lightsaber, which would pretty easily and completely explain why it responds to Rey and not Kylo — he’s just so much more removed genetically than she is.

At the end of the day, Star Wars’ success is in its ability to conjure and support theories such as this one. True or not, it’s a good mental exercise. Stories fill us with hope and fear, and we leave theaters with a flurry of emotion. This is the mark of good storytelling: the ability to manipulate the viewer on a neurochemical level. There are many opportunities surrounding Rey’s lineage that will evoke an emotional response, but this seems to be the one that provides the most backing for fans and opportunity for filmmakers. To overlook it might be a mistake, as other theories might hold water, but fail to script the narrative possibilities that are inherent to the Anakin clone theory. We have all wanted to love Darth Vader since we were kids, to ultimately understand him and root for him. Rey presents a unique opportunity for us to return to our prepubescent emotions surrounding these characters and do just that — watch Anakin become whom we always wanted him to be.