Kylo Ren may still have a way to go before he emulates Darth Vader, but there’s no question that Adam Driver’s mercurial villain is already a force to be reckoned with.
Even in The Force Awakens, when he was operating at the behest of Supreme Leader Snoke, Kylo Ren was an unstable wreck, and often lashed out at his First Order subordinates when the Resistance gained the upper hand. But the real sucker punch came when Adam Driver’s budding Sith confronted Han Solo, his estranged father, who issued a desperate plea as part of a last-ditch attempt to salvage what was left of young Ben Solo.
It was here, moments before Kylo Ren powered up that crossguard lightsaber, that a flicker of righteousness illuminated his face, which tells us that Driver’s deeply flawed character is a far cry from a one-note villain. And at least based on October’s stunning trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson and Co. will continue to toy with Kylo’s dubious morality come December, while Adam Driver himself recently spoke to GQ (via ComicBook.com) about what makes his tyrant tick.
It makes complete sense how juvenile he can be. You can see that with our leadership and politics. You have world leaders who you imagine — or hope or pray — are living by kind of a higher code of ethics. But it really all comes down to them feeling wronged or unloved or wanting validation.
He’s an anarchist, then; someone who can’t be reasoned with even when the odds are stacked against him – if Han can’t get through to him, we fear the young Ben Solo has been lost to the dark side for good.
As for those real-life comparisons, Adam Driver then recalled the discussions he had with both J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson about terrorism and those who operate under a radicalized ideology.
We talked about terrorism a lot. You have young and deeply committed people with one-sided education who think in absolutes. That is more dangerous than being evil. Kylo thinks what he is doing is entirely right, and that, in my mind, is the scariest part.
Expect Star Wars: The Last Jedi to peel back the layers of Kylo Ren this December – just don’t expect Rian Johnson to reveal all the answers.
