Adam Driver Says Kylo Ren’s Redemption Arc Of Becoming Ben Solo Was “Never A Part Of” J.J. Abram’s Original ’Star Wars’ Plan

We are now several years removed from “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” and the end of the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy. With time elapsing, we are finally hearing the stories from the actors about what happened during the conception of the films. That is to say, we are hearing confirmation that the overall arc of many of the characters in the sequel trilogy were greatly altered heading into the third film. The latest to discuss this is Adam Driver, who plays Kylo Ren in the galaxy far, far away.

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Speaking on the Rich Eisen Show, Adam Driver was asked about his time as Kylo Ren in the “Star Wars” franchise. And even though you have to expect many actors would have killed to earn the right to play the new Vader-esque baddie in the legendary film series, Driver was a bit skeptical.

“No, I wanted to think about it. It was when I was shooting ‘Girls’ and I was a fan of ‘Star Wars,’ and I didn’t want it to be bad,” he explained. “And there was no script to read. That was part of the gig. You could get the part, but the only way… after you agreed to do everything, then they put you in a tiny room and allowed you to read the script for the first time.”

He added, “J.J. Abrams walked me through what he wanted to do with the character, but you had to sign up and be like, ‘I’m gonna do it,’ and once I did that, I went to London to star for pre-production, and it’s like, ‘there’s a tiny room down the hall, you can go in there and read the script.’ And so I was reading it for the first time.”

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But even from the beginning, Driver was aware that the character he was signing up to play was being set up as the new Darth Vader for this sequel trilogy.

“I did, yeah. And I had an overall arc that in mind that [JJ Abrams] wanted to do,” said Driver. “His idea was that [Kylo’s] journey was the opposite journey of Vader, where Vader starts the most confident and the most committed to the dark side. And then by the last movie, he’s the most vulnerable and weak. He wanted to start with the opposite. This character was the most confused and vulnerable, and by the end of the three movies, he 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 while shooting. But I was still focused on that.”

Of course, if you watch ‘Rise of Skywalker,’ you know the trajectory of Kylo’s story changed greatly from that description from Driver. So, when did that happen? Well, as you might expect (considering so much of the sequel trilogy was conceived at the very last minute), the story of Kylo Ren was always a work in progress.

“With Rian [Johnson], he took it in a different direction, but it still tracked with the character. And then the last one, it changed into being, you know, about them and the dyad, and things like that. And evolving into Ben Solo,” Driver explained. “That was never a part of it. He was Ben Solo from the beginning, but there was never a version where we’d see Ben Solo when I first signed up for it.”

Of course, it doesn’t sound as if Adam Driver is overtly complaining about the direction the film trilogy went in. But then again, it’s clear the story he was told was going to happen was very much not the end result. So, you have to assume there was maybe a bit of frustration. That said, the films were financially successful and Driver became a household name. All’s well that ends well, right?