THE LAST JEDI Director Rian Johnson Explains How Rey and Kylo Ren Are Dual Protagonists
After Star Wars: The Force Awakens we learned Rey would be the main protagonist in the new Star Wars trilogy. This came as a bit of a shock to some since Finn was featured so heavily in the trailers. If you have been paying attention to the trailers, TV spots, and other promotional material this may not come as a huge shock to you, but it appears Kylo Ren will have a very prominent and more foreground role to play in this saga. During the original trilogy, Darth Vader was designed to be a huge menacing figure that spent most of his time in the background while our heroes trained and had their adventures with very little of the storytelling focused on Vader himself. It seems Rian Johnson has decided Kylo Ren won’t have that same background role as his grandfather. The people at Comic Book give us an excerpt from an interview with SciFiNow Magazine where Johnson states:
“I think Rey and Kylo are almost like a dual protagonist[.] You identify with Rey, but also you identify with Kylo in a way that you never did with Vader. I know I do. Because if these movies are about adolescence, Kylo is that anger of adolescence and that rejection of the parents, and wanting to screw over your dad; and that’s something that all of us, to some degree, can identify with. And the idea of there being a bad guy who you identify with as much as you do the protagonist in some way, that’s really interesting.”
Being more prominent is not a bad thing. There are many ways to make a great villain and while Darth Vader had a certain way of being amazing, I think there’s still a lot of potential to make Kylo great. I think by making him relatable, Johnson may create a Kylo that will surprise us. After all, Daisy Ridley talked about Kylo Ren’s role in The Last Jedi and made some interesting comments.
“It’s funny how Adam [Driver, who plays Kylo Ren] talks about it[.] He said it’s not the difference between good and bad, it’s the difference between good and right. Like his character thinks what he’s doing is right. He doesn’t think he’s the big baddie. So the lines get blurred anyway. Good people make bad decisions. Bad people make good decisions. What Rian has done is this wonderful thing of morally questioning people in a way that makes you see them in a more three dimensional way, or just in a way that you haven’t seen before.”
What does Adam Driver, Kylo Ren himself, have to say about all this? In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Driver mentioned:
“He has been aware of this ability in himself from such a young age, and I don’t think there’s a lot of people around him who are on the same level[.] I think that there is something familiar there, as well as something to be feared, or something … that he can’t quite place.”
What do you think? Will Kylo be able to ditch the emo label we’ve all given him, or is he doomed to just be emo forever?