While 2017 was the year Reylo became an overnight sensation with the release of Rian Johnson's
the Last Jedi, a second ship also took flight with the climax of the eighth film in the Skywalker Saga, much smaller than that of Rey & Ben Solo - one could even say it was X-Wing sized.
That ship was Damerey.
Brought on by the short meet cute they shared aboard the Falcon, Poe getting to say this trilogy's "I know" while introducing himself to Rey, and Daisy Ridley and Oscar Isaac's fantastic chemistry, Damerey became popular enough that the actors were asked whether or not it had the potential to bloom into a full romance in the ninth film. Now, in the year of 2025, we know that didn't happen, but over the years it hasn't stopped me from noticing how often Rey and Poe's storylines mirror each other, how compellingly thematic they could be together if the films went that way, and how it feels strangely organic from all the symbolism that already exists in the trilogy. Not to mention, there definitely seems to be a push in expanded material to flesh out their dynamic (various Star Wars Adventures issues, Spark of the Resistance, and the short story Through the Turbulence in Stories of Jedi and Sith.)
My fascination with the possibility of Rey and Poe's relationship being romantic, was only encouraged by discovering the alleged leaked script Colin Trevorrow wrote for Episode Nine ("Duel of the Fates") actually had Rey and Poe's relationship blossom into a romance. But it really kicked into a rabbit hole of epic proportions last week, when I found a post on X talking about how the art books had confirmed Rey and Poe were originally meant to be together.
Naturally, I pulled out my copy of the Art of the Force Awakens to confirm this because I love having citations. The art book is pretty forthright on the development of the movie (highly recommend it if you love reading about the creative process like I do), and I discovered that in March 2013, Michael Ardnt was working on his basic outline for what would go on to become the Force Awakens; the story beats that would later percolate into the film we all know and love were already there. At the time, the trio consisted of Kira (Rey), Sam (Finn), and John Doe (Poe).
John Doe was being tossed around to either be a Jedi or even a Bounty Hunter (being a Resistance pilot came later down the line), but relevantly, the art book has him listed as being Kira's partner:
While in October 2013, Michael Arndt departed production (leaving Simon Kinberg, Lawrence Kasdan and J.J. Abrams at the helm), his outline was kept for the film and he still has writing credit on the movie. By December 2013, the first script was turned in, and by January, John Doe had officially been renamed "Poe."
Thanks to the Force Awakens commentary (highly recommend), we know that in the original plan had the TIE Fighter crash to be a fake-out all along, and that Poe had survived:
"Originally when I thought of Poe, I thought he would seem to die
here and come back later, but then when Larry and I wrote the script, we
just killed him. And when I showed the script to Oscar Isaac, who I
really wanted to be in the movie, he said he really wanted to do it, but
he'd died in, like, four other movies in the first act. And is there
any way he could live. And it was Michelle Rejwan, co-produced of the
movie, who said “You know, Poe used to live, you could have Poe live
again.” And I was like, "No, no, no. I think you see it coming." She's
like, “Yeah, yeah, but it's really happy and the movie needs something happy at that point." So I called Oscar and said, "All right, you live.” And he agreed to be in the movie.”
Discovering this information launched me into an investigation, curious to see how far into the development process this romantic relationship got, since the art book didn't go into many details on it, which lead me to the novelization. At some point during production, Alan Dean Foster was approached to write the novelization for the film based off the screenplay. In the novel, Poe and Rey actually meet on D'Qar:
The romantic context (she likes his face!) is in particular interesting, because Foster is a hardcore FinnRey shipper and pushed for them in the novel. Interestingly, according to
this interview I found by him, certain scenes were added/expanded upon by request from Lucasfilm (they also had him cut the romantic tension between Rey and Finn, which oddly enough, seems to have never
truly been in the works so far as I can find information on it?).
In 2017, Pablo Hidalgo - Star Wars Lore Advisor for Lucasfilm's Story Group - confirmed in a Tweet (archived via Tumblr post; I don't think the original tweet is available any longer) that although the scene was shot for the Force Awakens, it was eventually cut from the film and instead inserted into the novel.
As for why the scene was cut from the film, I've only been able to find conjecture and rumors without any sources for the reasoning. But word on the street is that Rian Johnson requested J.J Abrams remove it, so that Rey and Poe could meet after the events of Crait. I do know that in the commentary for the Last Jedi, he's stated that he wanted them to have a nice moment together, after everything they'd gone through in the film.
While the meet cute largely remained the same, Rian Johnson is reported to have said in this Bustle article, that it was an unconscious callback to the infamous Han and Leia love confession in the Empire Strikes Back, and he only realized it due to Oscar Isaac pointing it out to him (presumably during filming):
"Oscar noticed — Oscar pointed it out on set, like 'Oh it’s kind of like
in different context, like our version of I know,'" he says. "When I
wrote it, I wasn’t even explicitly thinking of that, although maybe
subconsciously it felt right because Oscar— Poe has a lot of Han in
him."
Adding to the interesting web that is Damerey, Colin Trevorrow has gone on record to confirm that he requested Rian Johnson have Rey and Poe meet at the end of the Last Jedi:
"I just asked
Rian if he could include a little moment where Rey and Poe meet for the
first time," he says. "They’re such beloved characters, it felt right
for them to have some history in the next movie. I thought the way he
did it was perfect."
Trevorrow and his co-writer, Derek Connolly, left production in
2017. Due to Lucasfilm not budging on the 2019 release date, and
being dissatisfied with multiple script/outlines, J.J Abrams and Chris
Terrio basically had to scrape together a bunch of previous
drafts/scripts and their own ideas, into a reasonably coherent script, so a
lot of "Trevorrow's DNA remained in the film" and he and Derek
Connolly, have writing credit on The Rise of Skywalker:
From the leaked (although still unconfirmed to be official) script of "Duel of Fates", we know that Trevorrow had meant to set up a romance between Rey and Poe in the final film. According to the same interview, some of Trevorrow's initial concepts still remained in the heart of the movie:
“I’m grateful to J.J. for embracing some of our ideas,” Trevorrow said. “It’s exciting that fans will get to see the moments that felt essential to all of us.”
Which could shine some light on how Rey and Poe's electric, Hanleia-esque bickering relationship we finally see in Episode Nine came to be. Unfortunately, this is all I've been able to find regarding the
development of Rey and Poe's relationship throughout the making of the
films, that also have citations and sources for them.
Even though an on-screen relationship never made it past the concept stage, I think the fact that Damerey was at the heart of at least three film's developments (since Rian Johnson was requested to potentially build up to something between them, also) is really interesting, and I can see the seeds that were planted still in the final cut of each film. Do I think anything will ever come of it officially? I definitely believe there's potential for it to happen down the line, but regardless of where it may end up falling in canon, I will always adore this ship (and have for nearly a decade now thanks to my best friend!), and digging into its history behind the scenes has been an incredible ride.
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