Adam Driver Reveals J.J. Abrams' Original Story Arc for Kylo Ren and It Didn't Involve Redemption
One of the most ridiculous aspects of the Star Wars sequel trilogy was how J.J. Abrams tried to redeem Ben Solo, aka Kylo Ren ,after murdering his dad Han Solo. I never bought into that redemptive arc and apparently, Adam Driver never bought into it either.
There was an original story arc for Kylo Ren that didn’t involve any kind of redemption, and even though things changed over the course of the three films, Driver still held on to the original concept of the character. During a recent interview on The Rich Eisen Show, Driver explained the original journey of Kylo Ren, and how it was going to be the opposite of Darth Vader:
"I had an overall arc in mind that [Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams] wanted to do, which then changed, but his idea was that -- almost the opposite journey of Vader, where Vader starts the most confident, the most committed to the Dark Side, and by the last movie, he's the most vulnerable and weak. He wanted to start at the opposite, this character was the most confused and vulnerable and, by the end of the three movies, would be the most committed to the Dark Side. I tried to keep that arc in mind regardless if that wound up not being the journey anyway, because it changed, obviously, while we were shooting. But I was still focused on that."
He also talked about Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi and how while he went in a different direction, the director still was following that original arc for Kylo Ren. It all changed, though with the Rise of Skywalker:
"With Rian, he took it into a different direction, but still tracked, with the character. Then the last one, it changed into being about [Kylo and Rey] and the dyad and things like that. And evolving into Ben Solo, that was never part of it. Well, Ben Solo, he was Ben Solo from the beginning, but it was never a version where we see Ben Solo, when I signed up for it."
The original arc for Kylo Ren made so much more sense than what Abrams ended up doing. Why did Abrams change the trajectory of the character’s arc!? Regardless of how the movies turned out, at least Kylo Ren’s arc would’ve been more interesting than what it ended up being.