A new Star Wars book recontextualizes Rey’s Skywalker ending fans hated
Instead of learning Disney is doubling down on the divisive and confusing choice.
Star Wars: Legacy, a new novel by Madeleine Roux, adds a scene where Leia ceremonially welcomes Rey into the Skywalker family. It’s being called a fix for the divisive Rise of Skywalker ending. But it is just Disney making up context on a divisive decision to justify it.
One of the most divisive lines in Star Wars history just got some new backstory, seven years after it aired.
A new Lucasfilm novel, "Star Wars: Legacy by Madeleine Roux, makes up new information about the relationship between Rey and Leia and, near its end, has Leia “eremonially welcome” Rey into the Skywalker family.
Disney isn’t learning from the mistake. Instead, they are doubling down on it.
What is Star Wars: Legacy?
The book sets up a reason for Rey to claim she was Rey Skywalker.
Legacy was just published by Random House Worlds on July 28.
Set in the months between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, it follows Rey and Leia on a quest to repair the broken Skywalker lightsaber. The story focuses on the two of them growing into a master and apprentice. Disney already killed off Luke, so Leia has to do it.
They even called the book “Legacy”. What “legacy”? The ones who had that title were mostly destroyed for Disney’s version.
Because girl power and the constant need for Disney and Lucasfilm to try to make this a girl brand, when it is never going to be a female-dominated IP.
Reviewers have described the book as “connective tissue”. Some fans are calling it Disney’s desperate attempt to legitimize a poor choice.
Why fans hated Rey calling herself a Skywalker
At the very end of The Rise of Skywalker, Rey travels to Tatooine to bury the Skywalker lightsabers at Luke’s old homestead. When a stranger asks her name, Rey looks out at the twin sunset, with the Force ghosts of Luke and Leia watching, and answers, “Rey Skywalker.”
It was the final line of a 40-plus-year saga, and a big chunk of the fandom hated it.
Rey isn’t a Skywalker by birth; the previous movie revealed her parents were nobodies, and this one made her a Palpatine. So a lot of fans saw her taking the Skywalker name as unearned, claiming a legacy that wasn’t hers.
This was after The Last Jedi killed off Luke Skywalker, who, along with Anakin Skywalker, were the focus of Star Wars for decades.
Many point to The Last Jedi as the movie that fractured the Star Wars fandom.
It seems Disney is trying to legitimize Rey taking the Skywalker name and continuing the Jedi training Luke was supposed to do.
This isn’t going to win the audience back for a Rey movie.
Where’s the Rey movie
In limbo.
Lucasfilm announced a new Rey movie three years ago at Star Wars Celebration in 2023. They also announced controversial director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy as the director for the film and Daisy Ridley returning to build a new Jedi Order.
Since that announcement, not much more has been said.
Besides the Rey film, there’s also an untitled Episode X in development with writer Simon Kinberg.
This sounds like Disney using Legacy to case-build Rey’s legitimacy for the sequel era. Some will eat it up, but a lot of fans will just find it another reason to pass on Disney’s future Rey-led films.
Just like they did with all the retconned tie-ins to the Galactic Starcruiser hotel, the Halcyon.
Disney. This is why you fail.
Article compiled with the help of the Pirates & Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
CBR (July 29, 2026), Jordan Iacobucci’s piece on the book reframing Rey’s ending and the fan-backlash context
StarWars.com (October 11, 2025), the official announcement of Star Wars: Legacy, Roux’s authorship, and the between-episodes setting
Penguin Random House and Wookieepedia, the July 28, 2026 release date, publisher, and plot synopsis
The HoloFiles and Star Wars News Net (July 2026), reviews describing the book as connective tissue that adds context to The Rise of Skywalker