I counted six scenes with explicit mentions of Reys Palpatine-heritage (including the one big, fat first encounter between her and Palpatine on Exegol) and three or four scenes in which it somehow is implied (but probably could be worked around). If one would more or less just cut them out or somehow alter them, the plot would not just still makes sense, but actually would even make more sense, especially from a philosophical point of view (because, you know, Rey Nobody…).
Based on my three viewings, I already have a pretty detailed plan of how I’ll get rid of Rey Palpatine. I don’t want to share until I have the film in front of me, just to make sure. But for help, these are the key scenes I’ve identified.
- Palpatine says for Kylo to beware Rey, because she is not who she seems (this is the end of their conversation and should be easily lopped off)
- Kylo and Rey’s force bond/duel where Kylo discusses Palpatine having her parents murdered. This is obviously setting up the reveal in the next scene. How much you want to leave and how much you want to change is up to how you want to solve the reveal. Regardless, Kylo’s lines about Rey’s parents (and how they’re portrayed in the flashback) are contradictory with what we’re told about them in TLJ.
- The hangar reveal. As with the past scene, Kylo is masked, so everything he says can be changed. Rey basically says nothing.
- Luke talks with Rey about being a Palpatine. Lines will have to be cut, not just Luke saying “because you’re a Palpatine,” but really the whole bit about Leia still wanting to train her despite her blood. I can’t think of anyway to retain those lines without Rey Palpatine.
- Rey confronts Palpatine on Exegol. A handful of Palpatine’s lines directly mention their relation. But I believe these can be safely excised.
Those are the main ones, but depending on how far you want to take it, there might be more. If you want to take Rey’s parents out of the story entirely, you’ll have to remove lines in a few different scenes, get rid of all the flashbacks, and probably change the ship in TFA. There’s also the running theme of Rey being “afraid of who she is.” Depending on how much you want to change, you might have to remove this too.
Personally, I think the simplest/most pain free option is to simply remove Palpatine being her grandfather and her parents trying to protect her, and just make it so that Palpatine wanted to “kill” her because he saw her future and that she would take the throne. Kylo basically already says this outright, so mostly it’s just judiciously removing lines and shots, and then I think you have to place emphasis on Rey’s vision during her training to more believably make it the dark cloud that hangs over her during the film (in place of her lineage).