Just wanted to lay out a few of the options I’ve heard floating around regarding Rey’s story in the movie, as well as share some bigger thoughts regarding Ascendent.
So, these are some of alternative reveal options I’ve heard so far:
- Rey Palpatine (Original)
- Rey Nobody, Palpatine saw her future and ordered to have her killed/taken.
- Not Palpatine’s biological grandchild, but created her through the dark side, like an anti-Chosen One.
- Rey Nobody, but she killed her parents. (Remove connection with Ochi).
- Rey Nobody, but Kylo killed her parents.
- Rey Nobody, and the main conflict deals with destiny and visions of her future.
A 7th option might be worth trying with initial edits is to just try and cut everything necessary to remove the Rey Palpatine connection, and don’t try to set up some kind of dramatic reveal. At this point we’re all trying to replace the Rey Palpatine reveal with something else, but the challenge with that will be to create new shots and dialogue that fit these alternative narratives. Something like this idea would mostly require making Rey and Kylo’s Kijimi/Destroyer and hangar interactions more action-focused and brief, as well as cutting other brief lines throughout the film.
So basically, the objective could be to collaborate on making only the most necessary changes to remove Rey Palpatine, and make other popular changes, basically as an edit that addresses the major gripes people had with the movie, without becoming too radically different from what we got.
The thing is, at least from my perspective, option 2 and option 7 are essentially the same thing. Option 2 is what you get when you cut out Palpatine being Rey’s grandfather but leave everything else. If you wanted to also remove Palpatine seeing her future and ordering her to be killed, you’d end up with a more drastic/radical edit than option 2, because you’d in effect be removing everything from Kylo and Rey’s star destroyer interactions rather than just some of it.
Maybe I’m biased because it’s the option I’m going with, but the reason it’s the option I’m going with is that it seems like the absolute easiest way to do it.