Kylo Ren is a villain unlike any other we’ve seen in the Star Wars saga, mixing the power and ruthlessness of Darth Vader with the youthful uncertainty and instability of prequel-era Anakin. He’s not always a very dignified figure, but his conscience frequently comes through in moments of indecision, leading much of the internet to speculate on whether a redemptive finale is on the cards for Adam Driver’s character in Star Wars: Episode IX.
While that possibility remains a point of debate, a new article from Inverse argues that Kylo is pretty much doomed to die either way, and it’s hard to disagree. The piece draws on a recent quote from Driver that the team is currently, “working toward something in particular with that character,” and asks, as other fans have asked before, what sort of finale the actor could be referring to.
The article makes the point that unlike his light side equivalent Rey, Kylo doesn’t seem like a character whose journey is bound by good-and-evil archetypes, and that he looks to be legitimately changing across this trilogy. Nonetheless, given all the people that Kylo’s already had a hand in killing – his own father included – it’s hard to imagine writer-director J.J. Abrams letting him off the hook, meaning that a heroic death in the vein of Vader’s finale is probably the best that this villain can hope for.
At the same time, since Return of the Jedi already pulled this same redemption trick, the question is raised of whether Abrams – whose first Star Wars movie was essentially a feature-length tribute to A New Hope – would really be willing to go this far in paying homage to the Original Trilogy. This implies that a journey even further into the dark side could well be on the cards for Kylo, but whatever the future has lined up for the guy, don’t expect things to end too happily for Ben Solo when Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.
