Rey Star Wars: Who She Is, Who Plays Her and Her Story

Rey is a scavenger who lives alone on Jakku, and Daisy Ridley plays her in all three sequel trilogy films. She first appears in Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), directed by J.J. Abrams, where she holds the top billing in the credits. She also stars in Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), directed by Rian Johnson, and in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), directed by Abrams again.

Her story begins thirty years after the Empire fell, when a military power called the First Order is hunting the missing Jedi Luke Skywalker. Resistance pilot Poe Dameron hides a map fragment to Luke's location inside his droid BB-8, and the droid ends up with Rey. Finn, a stormtrooper who has lost his nerve, helps Poe escape and then meets her. The three are chased across the desert, and a stolen ship leads them to Han Solo and Chewbacca.

Rey is also credited as Rey and takes the name Rey Skywalker at the end of the saga. For the wider cast, see star wars characters and the star wars cast page.

Rey moves from a lone scavenger on Jakku to the hero who defeats Palpatine over three films. In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, she travels with Han Solo and Chewbacca to the cantina of Maz Kanata, where she is drawn to a lightsaber that once belonged to Luke and sees a troubling vision. The First Order then uses its giant planet sized base, Starkiller Base, to destroy several worlds of the New Republic, and Rey is taken prisoner. Kylo Ren tries to pull the map from her mind, but she resists and discovers a strong connection to the Force. After Kylo kills his father Han, Rey and Kylo fight in the snowy woods, and she defeats him using the Force. She then travels with Chewbacca and R2-D2 to find Luke.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi picks up on the island of Ahch-To, where Luke refuses to help and then reluctantly agrees to teach her. Rey and Kylo begin to talk to each other through the Force, and Luke admits he once considered killing Kylo, which led Kylo to destroy his Jedi students. Rey goes to Snoke, and Kylo kills him and fights beside her against his guards. He asks her to rule with him, and she refuses.

In Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the resurrected Emperor Palpatine broadcasts a message promising revenge on the galaxy. Kylo finds a Sith wayfinder pointing to the hidden world of Exegol, where Palpatine offers him a huge fleet if he will kill Rey. Poe, Finn and Chewbacca learn that Palpatine is on Exegol, and Rey sets out with them for Pasaana to find a clue to a second wayfinder. In the final confrontation, Rey defeats Emperor Palpatine by turning his Force lightning back on him.

Rey's key relationships are with Kylo Ren (also called Ben Solo), her teacher Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and her Resistance friends Finn, Poe Dameron and Chewbacca. Kylo is revealed in Star Wars: The Force Awakens to be the child of Han Solo and Leia Organa. His link with Rey runs through all three films, from the interrogation to the shared conversations in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and it ends when he gives the last of his Force power to bring her back to life. The films never present Rey and Kylo Ren as a couple.

Luke is her reluctant teacher on Ahch-To, and she holds out his old lightsaber to him in the closing scene of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Leia mourns Han alongside Rey and tells her in The Last Jedi that the Resistance can rise again. Rey's closest companions are Finn, Poe Dameron and Chewbacca, with the droids BB-8 and R2-D2 along for the journey. Han Solo and Chewbacca are the first allies she gains after leaving Jakku.

On the villain side, Palpatine wants her dead, and she chooses the surname Skywalker at the end. For the order of events, see the star wars timeline.

Rey lives through the whole saga: she is alive and free at the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In the last duel with Palpatine she holds the lightsabers of Luke and Leia and sends his Force lightning back at him. Ben Solo, the man who was Kylo Ren, spends the last of his Force power to revive her, and he dies in doing so. Afterward she goes to Tatooine, buries the lightsabers there and gives her name as Rey Skywalker. That closing scene ends both the Skywalker saga and the sequel trilogy.

No new Star Wars film with Rey has been confirmed. The next film on the schedule is Star Wars: Starfighter, directed by Shawn Levy and starring Ryan Gosling, with a confirmed US release date of May 28, 2027. Rey is also absent from the top fifteen credits of The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026).

Rey's best scenes are the quiet ones, starting with her offering Luke's lightsaber at the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. In my opinion, the film earns its sequel hook in that single image, because the whole search for Luke pays off in a gesture on a cliff top.

My second pick is Rey's scene aboard Snoke's flagship in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, where Kylo kills Snoke, fights beside her and then asks her to rule with him. The refusal matters more to me than the fight, since it sets Rey apart from the pattern of the earlier trilogy. The Maz Kanata cantina scene, where the lightsaber pulls her into a vision, deserves a mention for how much it asks of a first time viewer.

The finale of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is the most debatable. Turning Palpatine's lightning back with two lightsabers is a strong set piece, and the Tatooine coda that follows gives the name Skywalker its meaning. How well the film ties off her story is a matter of taste, and I would point readers who want a slower character study to The Last Jedi instead.