A Certain Rey/Leia Scene Was A Mistake, According to J.J. Abrams

In a recent interview with Slashfilm, J. J. Abrams revealed that a particularly moving character decision (and one at the foundation of several fans theories) in Star Wars: The Force Awakens wasn’t entirely intentional.

The scene in question involves a seemingly random hug between Rey and Leia—two characters who haven’t up to this point in the movie formally met. The moment, which is about sharing in mutual loss over a character death, appeared even more odd considering that there were two characters (Leia and Chewbacca) who had a stronger and longer history of kinship with the recently deceased.

Of course there are several ways you can pick apart the scene to explain the Rey and Leia hug, but J.J. Abrams makes it easy for us by admitting that it it gave viewers the wrong idea.

“My thinking at the time was that Chewbacca, despite the pain he was feeling, was focused on trying to save Finn and getting him taken care of,” Abrams explained. “So I tried to have Chewbacca go off with him and focus on Rey, and then have Rey find Leia and Leia find Rey. The idea being that both of them being strong with the Force and never having met, would know about each other—that Leia would have been told about her beyond what we saw onscreen and Rey of course would have learned about Leia. And that reunion would be a meeting and a reunion all in one, and a sort of commiseration of their mutual loss.”

Except that a character who had a deep connection to everyone’s mutual loss was left standing there awkwardly. It was this part of the scene that was an accident, if you will.

Although this will probably become an iconic piece of Star Wars trivia, it may also dash hopes that the moment alluded somehow to Rey’s mysterious parentage.