Rey's Parents’ Ship Sure Looks Familiar... Has This 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Mystery Finally Been Solved?

Since Star Wars: The Force Awakens was basically a remake of the original Star Wars (refusing to call it A New Hope : I will die on this hill), we’ve collectively been assuming a familiar familial twist when it comes to Rey’s parentage. Abandoned on Jakku at a young age, Rey essentially raised herself, scrapping to scrape out a subsistence life under Unkar Plutt’s monopolistic feudalism. So what deadbeat father and/or mother left Rey on this Tatooine-ian hellhole? Would you believe that ethical paragon, Luke Skywalker, pulled the ghost dad act?

Check out this photo comparing the spaceship that dumped Rey on Jakku (as seen in her Force vision) with Luke Skywalker’s shuttle from Star Wars #89, part of the abandoned canon of Marvel Star Wars expanded universe comics.

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I mean… right? Isn’t this tiny reference exactly the kind of stuff that J.J. Abrams can’t resist? Like how every new design in The Force Awakens—from the new model X-Wings to Rey’s speeder—is just cast-off Ralph McQuarrie stuff they rejected the first time around?

Plus, there’s another very good reason to place Rey on the next limb of the Skywalker family tree. Asked to compare A Star Wars Story movies like Rogue One to ongoing “Saga” entries like Star Wars: Episode VIII, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said, "The Saga films focus on the Skywalker family saga… the stories follow a linear narrative that connects to the previous six films. The Force Awakens follows Return of the Jedi and continues that generational story.”

But while it may turn out that Rey is indeed Luke Skywalker’s daughter, niece or clone, there’s a good reason to believe that the Luke Skywalker shuttle is just a product of coincidence. According to Lucasfilm Story Group member Pablo Hidalgo, it’s no more than a continuity red herring:

So while the angle captured by the imgurian smokeysunrise may seem strikingly similar, the actual ship doesn’t look much like Luke’s shuttle at all.

This proof of Rey’s parentage is turning out to be a big, Hutt nothing. Even so, the Luke Skywalker dad theory lives on, spawning some interesting questions about the nature of the Jedi Order. Have we just been assuming that the Light Side of the Force is equivalent to ethical goodness because of the whole dark/light thing? Because it’s hard to imagine how Luke Skywalker, warrior monk, would think it alright to ditch Rey on Jakku of all places. You think he’d know better—didn’t this dude have enough daddy issues of his own?

Should Luke turn out to be Rey’s dad in Star Wars: Episode VIII, it will take a lot of convincing if we’re to believe our favorite Skywalker isn’t a complete heel.