Prior to the release of Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker, director and co-writer JJ Abrams was part of the large group of cast and crew that embarked on a weeks-long press tour to promote the project. This began in April 2019 with Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, where the first trailer was shown and Emperor Palpatine’s return was revealed. Fans were ecstatic about this prospect at the convention, as seen by the reaction videos that garnered hundreds of thousands of views. Afterwards, Abrams was asked about Rey’s parentage, and revealed that they would be building on the "nobody" concept introduced in The Last Jedi. However, that that wasn’t the end of the story.
This teasing continued up until the film’s release, when many fans’ predictions came true: Rey was a Palpatine. Not just that, she is the granddaughter of the Emperor, who had a son presumably in the time between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Who this son was, who Rey’s mother was, and how Palpatine had a son are just a few of the questions that came from the revelation. The film moves at such a quick pace that it never truly slows down for anything, not even this key moment in the trilogy and the Skywalker saga more broadly. Thus, it leaves some plot gaps and unanswered questions. However, there was a way that JJ Abrams and co. Could have improved this familial reveal and pushed it to make more sense.
Connecting The Sequels To The Prequels
As stated, there were a variety of unanswered questions that stemmed from the reveal in the film. Ultimately, this comes down to the fact that the explanation for Rey being a Palpatine is too simple and predictable. Palpatine had a son, who is never explained, and that son was Rey’s father. It’s quite straightforward, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but given that the film was unable or unwilling to slow down and explain it meant that it appeared far too simple of an explanation. Perhaps this will be expanded upon in the future, as was the case with so many aspects of the prequels, but as of now there are a few too many plot holes and unexplained occurrences for some fans’ liking.
The answer for how this might have made sense could lie in the very first Skywalker saga film in the canonical timeline: The Phantom Menace. In that movie, Anakin was revealed to be a religious-like figure without a father and a miracle pregnancy from his mother, Shmi. Although never officially confirmed, it is a well-known theory amongst Star Wars fans that Palpatine himself created Anakin and made Shmi pregnant in order to create an incredibly powerful apprentice for himself. This plot could have been repeated in the final Skywalker saga film with Rey. She also gives off Chosen One vibes as Anakin did, especially given that they are two of the most powerful Jedi fans have ever seen.
If Palpatine was going to return and reveal a relation to Rey, JJ Abrams and co-writer Chris Terrio could have given this reveal more nuance by explaining that the Emperor created Rey in the same way that he forged Anakin. It would have connected the film back to the prequels in a way that many fans wanted, especially as it was the last in the saga. It would have helped tie everything together, which JJ Abrams himself said was one of his goals for the movie.
Explaining The "Nobody" Aspect
By describing Rey as a creation of Palpatine in this manner, this reveal could have linked back to The Last Jedi’s "nobody" idea rather than effectively retconning it. As it stands in the film fans saw, The Rise of Skywalker essentially changed much of what was said about Rey’s lineage — primarily, that her parents were nobodies who abandoned her on Jakku. Instead, it moved in a completely different direction thematically from what Rian Johnson was going for in Episode VIII. However, with a more nuanced approach, the two ideas could have not only worked together but also thrived even more and improved each other.
Palpatine could have created Rey, thus giving her the link to a preexisting figure that many fans wanted and what was teased in The Force Awakens. However, this route would result in the films keeping with what was said in The Last Jedi. Rather than Rey having a mother like Shmi as Anakin did, she could have had a more distant parental figure that was a junk trader, just as Kylo Ren told her. Rey could have been sold to a random individual for drinking money for her mother, and her mom could have been dead and buried in the Jakku desert.
Thus, all of what Kylo Ren said would still be true had the film gone this route. The themes of Rian Johnson’s reveal would be intact, as Rey’s mother would still have been the distant and cold individual that was described in The Last Jedi. However, Palpatine would also be in the mix, adding an extra layer to it all without erasing anything that was done before. If this happened, then it would have made The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker more harmonious and work better together, as well as bringing in the prequels. Ultimately, it would have meant that Rey’s reveal as a Palpatine was more logical and had greater harmony with the rest of the saga.