Even before its unfortunate run at the box office, Solo: A Star Wars Story could be seen as a slightly awkward entry in the Star Wars saga due to its lack of inter-movie connectivity, mostly surrounding Han and Chewie with characters who have little bearing on the series as a whole. Nonetheless, this one popular theory proposes a path by which the events of Solo could lead into the franchise’s main episodes, while hinting at a potential twist to come in Star Wars: Episode IX.
This line of speculation is all based around Rey and the identity of her parents. While Star Wars: The Last Jedi offered the divisive reveal that the young heroine’s mother and father were nothing more than filthy junk traders, a video from Film Threat argues that Kylo Ren may not have been entirely honest in his claim.
Specifically, the theory posits that Rey’s the illegitimate child of Kylo’s own father Han Solo and Han’s old love interest Qi’ra. The reasoning here is that Han may have had an affair years down the line from the events of his standalone film, which would explain why him and Leia broke up, and why Kylo hates his father.
By having the heroic Rey be the abandoned daughter of Qi’ra – a character connected to the dark side of the Force via Maul – it’s reasoned that a degree of symmetry would be brought to the saga, since Kylo’s conversely the dark-sided son of a woman on the light side of the Force.
Seeing how Han passed away back in 2015’s The Force Awakens and Carrie Fisher’s Leia will only be appearing in unused footage from previous films, it seems unlikely that Episode IX would bring in such a big reveal so late in the game. At the same time, this hidden connection between Kylo and Rey would certainly up the stakes for their complex relationship while perhaps pleasing a few Last Jedi detractors by bringing a family element back into the drama.
Though Rian Johnson probably wouldn’t care to have his own twist undone this way, it all rests with J.J. Abrams to finish this saga how he sees fit. And we’ll find out what he has planned when Star Wars: Episode IX comes out on December 20th, 2019.