The subject of Rey’s lineage has been up for debate since The Force Awakens first came out.  Is she a Skywalker?  Kenobi?  A nobody?  It was hotly debated after the first movies release, but then in The Last Jedi we were told they were nobodies, junk traders.  Kylo said it and Rey seemed to acknowledge it as fact.

RA-0410 Your Master Calls

Rey's lineage

Rey’s Lineage In Question

Then comes the run up to Rise of Skywalker.  JJ apparently had different ideas for Rey’s lineage, and it has become a hot topic.  Not only did JJ say he was going to retcon Rey’s lineage, but Rian gave his blessing.  All we know is what Rey and Kylo knew.  She may have been raised by junk traders, but that does not mean she couldn’t have had true parents before that.  Any change would still fit the story at this point.  So, who is she?

The Skywalker and Kenobi angles for Rey’s lineage seem a bit far fetched at this point.  It would be very difficult to have timelines line up in a believable manner without reaching beyond credibility, but what if Rey was something else?  What if Rey was in fact a clone?  A clone of who becomes more complicated, but there are several things pointing in this direction.

Origin of Cloning

The Kamino cloning vats
Grow, Rinse, Repeat

Cloning might seem like a bit of a stretch, but the concept has been with us since 1977.  Ben and Luke are discussing the past when a war fought long ago is mentioned – The Clone War.  We know Kenobi fought in it with Anakin Skywalker, but that is all we knew about the war until Attack of the Clones was released near the turn of the century; However, cloning itself would resurface in the early 90s with the comic series that helped relaunch a dead franchise.  Dark Empire was a story about Luke attempting to take on a resurrected Emperor.  How was he resurrected? Clones.  Even Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire trilogy contained cloning. So is cloning the key to Rey’s lineage?

Along comes the turn of the century and we get Attack of the Clones.  While usually at the bottom of the list in people’s rankings, we learned a great deal about cloning and what happened in the Clone War. While not common place, Cloning was no more difficult to the Kaminoans than building a sports car. Cloning always has and always will have an embedded place in Star Wars lore.