Rey (Star Wars)

Rey
Star Wars character
Daisy Ridley as Rey in The Force Awakens
First appearance	The Force Awakens (2015)
Created by	Lawrence Kasdan J. J. Abrams Michael Arndt
Portrayed by	Daisy Ridley Cailey Fleming (child, Episode VII)
Voiced by	Daisy Ridley (Disney Infinity 3.0, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens) Helen Sadler (Lego Star Wars: The Resistance Rises)
Information
Gender	Female
Occupation	Scavenger

Rey is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise, portrayed by English actress Daisy Ridley. First appearing as the central character in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Rey is a scavenger who was left behind on the planet Jakku when she was a child, and later becomes involved with the Resistance's conflict with the First Order when her solitary life is interrupted by BB-8, the droid of ace Resistance pilot Poe Dameron, and a runaway Stormtrooper named Finn.

Screenwriter Michael Arndt said that he found Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy's offer to write the Star Wars sequel trilogy daunting in mid-2012, but he became interested when it was explained to him to be about the origin story of a female Jedi and he met with George Lucas. The character was a young woman known as Kira in the early stages of production, and Arndt described her as a "loner, hothead, gear-head, badass". Arndt said that he struggled with introducing the young woman as the main character in his story while keeping her from being overshadowed after her early meeting with the Luke Skywalker character.

On creating a female lead for the new trilogy, director and writer J. J. Abrams stated that from his initial discussions with writer Lawrence Kasdan, he was excited at the concept of having a woman at the center of the story. He said that "We always wanted to write Rey as the central character" and that other female representation in the story was also important. Kennedy stated that "Rey is the new generation's Luke Skywalker." Rey's background as a scavenger was part of the developers attempting to portray her as "the ultimate outsider and the ultimate disenfranchised person" due to their belief that a person of that nature would have a prolonged journey compared to other types of people.