Latest Star Wars: Episode VIII rumour about Rey’s origin is kind of crazy

It’s been all quiet lately over in that corner of the internet. Oh, you know which corner. The one where Star Wars fanboys/fangirls sit around poring over the smallest morsel of info they can find and then extrapolate that into crazy theories that they hope will actually be validated once the hotly anticipated Star Wars: Episode VIII gets released next year. I would know, because I’m one of them. What I don’t do though is claim that my crazy theories are anything more than that – though there are plenty out there who do, saying this is actually a tip from “a source”. Sorting between which is genuine and not is a nigh impossible task, so please feel free to indulge in mountains of sodium chloride before reading this latest bit of inside info/wishful thinking.

As always though, just to be safe that this doesn’t actually turn out to be legit, I’m issuing a SPOILER WARNING from here on out. Scroll down after pass the image to read further.

 

This particular theory comes from CBM, who claim to have a secret source that managed to get hold of a single page from the script. The very page that apparently explains that Luke Skywalker is not Rey’s father, but that she is actually a reincarnation of the very first Jedi who got her powers from a tree. Seriously.

In the scene Luke tells Rey that the Jedi Council became “arrogant” and that they were hiding a “secret,” which led to their demise. The old Jedi master takes Rey’s hand and shows her a glimpse into the past. They see two children playing near a tree on an alien planet. The boy noticed that he had greater strength and intuition when he was closer to this tree. The girl noticed that the tree also made her brother increasingly angry. One day an argument breaks out between the children, and the boy kills the girl. The boy touches the tree and is “transformed,”. He kills his parents and leaves the planet. Meanwhile the girl is revealed to be alive, transformed by the tree as well, using her power to start the first Jedi Order.

The girl explains how The Force can be used for both good and evil. She tells her followers that one day she would return as either a boy or a girl, and that they should train this child. Luke tells Rey that the Jedi Order had been searching for The One (reincarnation of the original founder of the Jedi) for a millennia. When they found Anakin Skywalker and thought that he would bring balance to The Force, the Jedi were “deceived” and the Clone Wars were the result. The scene also shows Rey’s parents, and Luke is not the father. Luke tells her how she was identified as strong with The Force, and how she was supposed to begin her training, but never reached her destination for an unknown reason. In the scene Luke gives Rey a choice, and she has till sunset to make it.

So this essentially explains the origins about the prophecy of The One – no, not Keanu Reeves – who was mistakenly believed to be Anakin Skywalker, and then some later believed it to be Luke Skywalker. If this theory is to be believed, that was apparently also an incorrect assumption – but luckily just with much less child-murdering – and it’s actually Rey who is The One. Or she and Anakin were actually The Halves who formed The One? Something like that! (Personally, I would still prefer it if she was just a normal Jedi orphan with normal parents, who just happens to very strong in the Force)

Along with the description, CBM offered up some “proof” to back up their theory in the form of a pic of the supposed leaked script, as well as a Episode VIII set pic showing off Acht To, the island on which Rey finds Luke at the end of The Force Awakens. The latter is the most important here as it features none other than the husk of a giant tree.

In the interests of fairness, it also has to be pointed out that there’s a recent piece of canon that actually lends huge credit to this theory (or inspired it?). The comic book Star Wars: Shattered Empire, which follows Poe Dameron’s Rebel parents between the events of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, also features trees. In the fourth and final issue of the series, Luke Skywalker recruits Poe’s mom Shara Bey – the main character in this story – to assist him in breaking into a Star Destroyer and recovering the remains of a tree which Palpatine had stolen many years ago and was now studying in a high-tech, very well guarded lab. Luke claims these tree saplings were from the one that grew in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and that they were strong with the Force.

There’s never been a mention in the canon previously – both in the new stories and the old, now defunct Star Wars Expanded Universe – of a tree with a connection to the Force, so Lucasfilm definitely dropped that point into the comic for a reason. At the end of Shattered Empire, Luke gives one of the trees to Shara and her husband Kes Dameron, who plant it on the Rebel base planet of Yavin-4, while Luke absconds with the other for points unknown. Is this the tree mentioned in the so-called “leaked script”?

As we’ve said before though, judging by how close to their chest Lucasfilm played the marketing campaign for The Force Awakens, we probably won’t know anything for certain until Star Wars: Episode VIII is actually playing in front of us on December 15, 2017. The Star Wars Celebration Fan Expo is just around the corner though on July 15, and it should offer up a number of good hints. Just look at how good last year’s event was!

 

Last Updated: July 4, 2016