Kylo Ren memorably smashed his helmet to itty-bitty pieces in The Last Jedi, but then Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker came along and saw the First Order villain go to great lengths to rebuild the mask, which he wore throughout the rest of the film, now sporting distinctive red detailing where it had been welded back together. Original plans for the trilogy-closer, though, involved Kylo simply making himself a brand new, if similar, helmet.
We now know this thanks to a piece of concept art shared by concept designer Luke Fisher. “Kylo helmet concept for The Rise of Skywalker,” he wrote in his caption. “One of my ‘Kylo Mk.2’ versions, drawing closer on the Vader aesthetic.” You can definitely see the increased callbacks to Vader’s iconic mask in this design. That extra band of circuitry and red lights recalls the chest unit worn by Kylo’s infamous ancestor and a nice little extra touch is the straightened silver trim around the visor, which gives him a more robotic appearance.
Fisher’s caption confirms this artwork was created for J.J. Abrams’ pic, but Kylo would also have got a new helmet in Colin Trevorrow’s earlier version of the movie, titled Duel of the Fates. In Trevorrow’s plans, before he and Lucasfilm parted ways, Kylo would have been badly wounded when he tried to claim a Sith artifact that rejected him due to his conflicted soul. He would then have needed a new mask as a breathing apparatus, like his granddad. This helmet was to have been created from smelted Mandalorian metal.
The concept of Kylo simply fixing his old mask has never been popular with fans, who saw it as both a bit lazy and a misinterpretation of the fact that its destruction in TLJ was about him moving away from being a Vader clone. Still, if he had to wear a mask in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, it’s a shame it couldn’t have been one similar to this cool, redefined look.
