The 12,000 members of the 501st Legion—the cosplay organization that also
calls itself Vader’s Fist—spend about 200,000 hours a year doing charity work. There are more than 45,000 fan-generated Star Wars stories on the literaryfandom hub FanFiction.net. The four m
ost popular are “Vader redem
ption fic.”
The 34-year-old Beards had been cosplaying as
anime characters and Final Fantasy folks for years, but
she’d hardly touched the Lucasfilm universe. “Look-
ing at the cosplay community of Star Wars initially, it
always seemed really scary,” she says. “Everybody was
so gung-ho about being as screen-accurate as pos-
sible.” She liked Padmé’s look—the embroidery, the
beadwork—but “wasn’t in love with her.” She did some
dressing up as Sabine Wren, but that Mandalorian war-
rior isn’t exactly well known. When she saw Rey for
the first time, Beards felt a sartorial kinship. “She had
to work for everything she had,” Beards says. Rey had
to rely on her own resourcefulness and strength, and
that, Beards says, made her someone that women in the
fandom wanted to emulate. The simple outfit, paired
with the singular accessory of a lightsaber, gave rise to
an army of Reys.
They now fill convention halls everywhere. On a
Facebook group called the Rey Cosplay Community,
which Beards belongs to, scores of “scavenger sisters”
trade tips on costume construction. Don’t know how
to make your belt? A fellow fan will tell you, or you can
commission them to craft one. Stuck on what color
dye to use for Rey’s Jakku rags? There are tutorials.
(The less devoted can pick up Rey’s outfit on Ama-
zon for around $35. Just add a pair of Uggs and you’re
convention-ready.)
But here’s the most unexpected twist: According to
Alice Hall, who studies how role models in movies affect
fans, Ridley’s character seems to impact not just young
women but young men too. They don’t necessarily want
to be her, Hall explains, but they do want to live up to
her zeal and daring. She’s at the center of the trilogy—
Han likes her (grudgingly), Finn admires her. Obi-Wan
Kenobi and Luke are no longer the galaxy’s only hope;
the future of the Resistance is now largely in Rey’s hands,
and hers is the fate that matters most. Hall believes this
signals a shift in the Star Wars universe, an indication
that the women’s stories can be just as rich, and enrich-
ing, as the men’s.
In their explanations of fandom, media theorists like
Hall often talk about parasocial relationships, one-sided
bonds formed with a character or celebrity. When a fan
sees a character as a hero, Hall says, that fan can adoptthe character’s personality quirks and even
their moral code. No interaction is neces-
sary; these heroes and the choices they
make hold an outsize, personality-shaping
importance. When people talk about the
merit of having “strong female characters”
in movies, this is what they mean.
Indeed, Beards’ connection with Rey goes
beyond performance. In 2017 she joined the
New York chapter of the Saber Guild and
has since become the temple’s resident Rey
enthusiast, transforming her hobby into
an opportunity to do meet-and-greets
with other young fans and raise money
for charities like children’s hospitals and
the Trevor Project. (During an event at a
New York Yankees game with the Rebel
Legion, a young girl tugged on Beards’ cos-
tume, hugged her, and said, “Rey, you’re
my hero.”) She teaches aspiring Reys how
to swing their swords—a radical notion for
a group of fans who likely would’ve been
harassed in their Leia outfits 20 years ago.
“Myself and too many of my female friends
have had bad run-ins with people. But I
feel like now cosplayers are quicker to say,
‘Back off!’” Beards says. “If a guy gets too
up close and personal when you’re Rey,
you have a lightsaber, so you can put a nice
32-inch distance between you and the guy
real fast.”
Rey and her lightsaber: Throughout the
new trilogy, Disney has capitalized on the
power of that image. Trailers for The Last
Jedi lingered on scenes of Rey training on
Luke’s lonely island, blue blade flashing;
The Rise of Skywalker promises an epic,
storm-drenched sword fight between Rey
and Kylo Ren. Then there’s the most GIF’d
Star Wars moment of 2019: Rey unfolding
a double-bladed red lightsaber. Theories
about “Dark Rey” have blanketed the web
like Ewok fur. Kaplan, the costume designer,
keeps mum on what this Sith-ish costume
could mean. “I would be in a lot of trou-
ble if I talked about that,” he says, laughing.
Fans like McIntosh and Beards will likely
stick with their hero. “It’s just a challenge to
the Force to see what side she connects to,”
Beards says. “That’s my theory.” Sure, but
the possibility remains: Rey could go evil.
She could become a Sith. And you know
what the 10 existing Star Wars movies have
never had? A badass female villain.