In a declaration sure to be celebrated by Reylos internet-wide, Star Wars lead Daisy Ridley has admitted that she takes no issue with Rey and Kylo Ren sharing a kiss at the end of Rise of Skywalker because, in her opinion, the moment “felt earned”.
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Ridley offered her defense of the controversial Sequel Trilogy story beat during a guest appearance on the January 29th episode of entertainment reporter Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast.
Following discussions on a variety of topics including the actress’ recent work on the rom-dramedy Sometimes I Think About Dying and her history of run-ins with other celebrities, Horowitz eventually pressed his guest, “The one specific thing I want to ask about for Rise of Skywalker, where were you on the kiss moment? Were you like ‘This is going to work,’ or were you like ‘Are we really doing this?'”
In turn, Ridley recalled, “I think it felt earned.”
[Time Stamp: 29:22]
However, rather than explicitly leaning into the romance angle of the moment, the actress instead moved to justify the kiss on the grounds that it was more of a ‘good-bye’ than anything else (and in doing so ostensibly crushed the hopes of many a Reylo who no doubt wished for the actress to explicitly support their titular ship).
“What was interesting again I think is like, intentionality,” Ridley told Horowitz. “My feeling in that moment was it was a good-bye, so that felt earned. Cuz you could call a kiss a thousand things, but I felt like it was a good-bye, and that whole scene felt so emotional, and I felt like I was saying good-bye to the job.”
Further driving home her read of the scene, the actress then added, “Actually we had to pick up something that was missed, so on my very, very, very – in fact no one knows this – on my very very very last day we were doing various pick-ups and stuff, I had to literally sit and look at the camera, like coming away from me, and I guess I was looking at [director J.J. Abrams], and J.J. was like, ‘You good?’ and literally, immediately, I started like, crying my eyes out because it really felt like good-bye.”
Alas, regardless of Ridley’s apparent support of their characters’ final on-screen interaction, given Adam Driver’s continued confirmation that he has no plans to return to the shambling corpse of a franchise, it seems unlikely that anything more will ever come of Rey and Kylo Ren’s relationships.
But while Driver has no intention of reprising his role as arguably the only interesting part of the Sequel Trilogy, as fans are already likely well aware, Ridley is currently on track to once more appear as Rey in the Jedi’s upcoming, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy-directed solo film.
As of writing, details regarding this next Rey adventure remain practically non-existent, with the only information truly being known about its narrative is that it will see the heroine working to finish her Master’s failed goal of rebuilding the Jedi order.
Whether or not it will include any ship-baiting scenes in a desperate attempt to entice fans to the larger franchise remains to be seen.