‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’: JJ Abrams admits mistake in film, explains that Leia and Rey hug

“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” director J.J. Abrams has admitted he made a glaring mistake in the film. He was talking about that eyebrow-raising hug in the end of General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) and Rey (Daisy Ridley), who have never met each other before. What’s even more surprising in that show of affection is that Leia appeared to have snubbed Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew) when they should have been comforting each other following Han Solo’s (Harrison Ford) death.

Some spoilers for ‘The Force Awakens’ ahead. Please proceed with caution.

When Han died at the hands of his own son, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), there were three who were visibly devastated: Chewbacca, Leia and Rey, who grew close to him in a short span of time. As Han’s best friends, Chewbacca and Leia were expected to console each other after his death. They were both shattered by the loss of their friend and, in Leia’s case, former lover. However, that didn’t happen. Instead, Leia took Rey, whom she had never seen before, in an embrace, and appeared to have given Chewbacca the cold shoulder.

What’s up with that?

Abrams, who also co-wrote the screenplay for the film, admitted that it was a mistake. He told Slashfilm that he belatedly realised how it had looked with Chewbacca and Leia in the same shot but without acknowledging each other. However, he also explained why Leia and Rey felt close to each other despite not meeting before.

“That was probably one of the mistakes I made in that,” he said. “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. 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.”

What he could have done, though, is to have made the meeting clearer without Chewbacca in the same shot.

“Had Chewbacca not been where he was, you probably wouldn’t have thought of it. But because he was right there, passed by Leia, it felt almost like a slight, which was definitely not the intention.”

Leia and Rey embracing strengthens fan theories about Rey’s identity and parentage. The first conclusion viewers had upon watching the film was Rey was Luke Skywalker’s (Mark Hamill) daughter. However, there are theories abound that Rey could also be Leia and Han’s daughter. The hug could be interpreted that Leia actually knew Rey because perhaps she was her child.

Read: ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ theories: Rey as Luke or Han Solo’s daughter, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s grandchild and Anakin Skywalker’s reincarnation

“Star Wars: Episode VIII,” which may or may not be called “Tale of the Jedi Temple,” is expected to reach theatres in December 2017.