When you hire Chris Rock to conduct an interview-especially an interview with a nerd culture beacon like one J.J. Abrams, spotlighted in front of a large, bustling audience at this year's Tribeca Film Festival thanks in no small part to the success of The Force Awakens-what you're setting up for is a good show. Some pleasant patter, a few biting jokes, and the obligatory mention of Pootie Tang. (He found a way, guys.) So if what you're really interested in is hard-hitting investigative journalism, you're going to have to bring in a rogue. Enter: Kyle, an ostensibly middle school-aged Star Wars fan who, during the audience Q&A following Rock and Abrams' hour-long back-and-forth, had the guts to ask the one question everyone in the audience-nay, the world-really wants the answer to: "I was going to ask you, J.J., who Rey's parents are."
After a round of elated applause from the crowd, Abrams jokingly told the young fan to "get out!" And while he, to no one's surprise, refused to meet Kyle's quandary with a direct answer, Abrams did say something that might put to bed a series of theories the fan community has been harboring since The Force Awakens' release. "Rey's parents are," he began, pausing for just a moment, "not in Episode VII."