How Old Is Rey in ‘The Force Awakens,’ ‘The Last Jedi,’ & ‘The Rise of Skywalker’?
We all know that Rey is now the face of the Star Wars franchise heading into the future, especially because Lucasfilm will be working on a movie set 15 years after the events of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker. This film will focus more on Rey and her attempt to rebuild the Jedi Order. That means she is already at a more mature age than her age when she was still just learning the ways of the Force during the sequel trilogy.
Like most of our main Star Wars characters, Rey was quite young when she was introduced as the new main character of the franchise back in Star Wars Episode VII. That’s because a young character gifted in the Force should be at an age that’s young enough to start learning the Force but not old enough that it’s already a bit too late for them to discover their hidden abilities. In that regard, let’s look at how old Rey is in the sequel trilogies.
How Old Is Rey in The Force Awakens?
The original Star Wars movies started on 0 BBY/ABY and marked the restart of the entire galactic calendar because the Battle of Yavin was such an important event in the timeline of the Star Wars galaxy. It took around four years for the Rebels to finally defeat the Empire on 4 ABY, and that means that Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi happened four years after Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
We also know that Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens started a new Star Wars trilogy. The first movie of the sequel trilogy took place 30 years after the end of Return of the Jedi. That means that The Force Awakens took place on 34 ABY. This movie introduced Rey as the main character of the sequel trilogy and as the up-and-coming Force user uniquely gifted in the Force.
Rey was born on 15 ABY and grew up by her lonesome on Jakku, the planet where the final showdown between the Rebels and the Empire took place on 5 ABY. And because The Force Awakens took place on 34 ABY, that would mean that Rey was just around 19 years old when she was first introduced.
The fact that Rey was 19 when she made her official debut is consistent with what we usually see in the Star Wars franchise. After all, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa were just 19 years old when they were introduced in A New Hope. Meanwhile, even though Anakin was technically first introduced in Episode I: The Phantom Menace as a young boy, he was re-introduced as a rising Jedi Padawan in Episode II: Attack of the Clones at the age of 19. That means that 19 is the magic number when it comes to the main characters of the Star Wars franchise.
How Old Is Rey in The Last Jedi?
At the end of The Force Awakens, Rey went to the coordinates of the planet where Luke Skywalker had been hiding the entire time so that she could get help from him about the problems surrounding the First Order and her budding Force abilities. Meanwhile, Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi takes place right after Rey arrives on Luke’s planet of Ahch-To as Rey tries to convince him to become a Jedi again and even train her in the ways of the Force.
That means hardly any time actually progressed between the events of Star Wars Episodes VII and VIII. The Last Jedi took place right after the events of The Force Awakens. That would mean that this movie took place on 34 ABY as well and that Rey was still just 19 years old.
How Old Is Rey in The Rise of Skywalker?
The ending of The Last Jedi allowed us to see Kylo Ren rising to the status of Supreme Leader of the First Order after he killed Snoke and took his place. We also saw how he and the First Order could corner the Resistance, which managed to escape due to the intervention of Luke Skywalker’s Force projection. After that, the Resistance took its time to recover from the losses incurred during the events of The Last Jedi. Meanwhile, we know that Rey continued her Jedi training under Leia.
According to the Star Wars timeline, the events of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker took place on 35 ABY, which is currently the farthest into the future that the Star Wars storyline has ever reached. That would mean that there was at least a year between the events of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, as it was important for both sides to recover from what happened in Episode VIII.
As mentioned, Rey continued her training. Meanwhile, Kylo Ren discovered the existence of Exegol, the planet where the Sith Emperor, Darth Sidious, had been hiding the entire time. So, considering that an entire year went by between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, Rey was just 20 years old during the events of the final movie of the sequel trilogy.
So, if that’s the case, Rey would be around 35 years old by the time the new Star Wars movie is released. A woman at the age of 35 should be wise enough to run a new Jedi Order, as Rey would have been too young, back in her 20s, to restart the Jedi at a time when she was still just learning more about the Force and what it truly meant to be a Jedi.
