Kylo Ren originally had a much darker arc in the Star Wars sequel trilogy

It’s no secret that the Star Wars sequel trilogy didn’t have an overarching plan in place. That became especially apparent with final movie The Rise of Skywalker, which featured some pretty big course corrections following the divided reception to Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi.

The extent of the changes Star Wars made on the fly is still becoming clear, but now we finally have confirmation about one of the biggest shifts the sequel trilogy made during production. Adam Driver recently revealed on The Rich Eisen Show that Kylo Ren’s redemption in The Rise of Skywalker wasn’t planned from the beginning; instead, he was supposed to only grow more evil as the series went on.

Kylo Ren was never supposed to “evolve” back into Ben Solo

“I had an overall arc in mind that [director J.J. Abrams] wanted to do, which then changed,” Driver said. “His idea was almost the opposite journey of Vader, where Vader starts the most confident, the most committed to the Dark Side, and by the last movie he’s the most vulnerable, and weak, and he wanted to start at the opposite, where this character was the most confused and vulnerable, and by the end of the three movies would be most committed to the Dark Side.”

Driver added that he tried to “keep that arc in mind” even as the sequel trilogy changed during production. It wasn’t until the final film that Kylo Ren truly became a different character. “With [Rian Johnson], he took it into a different direction, but [it] still kind of tracked with the character. And then, [The Rise of Skywalker], it changed into being about [Rey and Kylo Ren], and the dyad and things like that.”

The actor then added a bombshell revelation almost as an afterthought: in the original vision of the sequel trilogy, Kylo Ren was never redeemed, never reclaiming his Ben Solo persona. “Evolving into Ben Solo, that was never part of it,” Driver said. “He was Ben Solo from the beginning, but…it was never a version where we actually see Ben Solo when I first signed up for it.”

Adam Driver recalls filming Han Solo’s death scene

Driver drops a bunch of other great tidbits in the interview, dispelling a rumor about how he ditched a hangout invite from Mark Hamill because he didn’t want to break character (their schedules simply didn’t align), and recalling how “earnest” Harrison Ford was on the day that they filmed Han Solo’s death scene for The Force Awakens.

“I remember we were on this big catwalk, that we were shooting [the scene], and we were just him and I, and we were talking and he was like looking around, and he goes, you know, ‘Look what we get to do. Isn’t this so great?'” Driver remembered. “I would think that he would be cynical or over it, and it was the exact opposite. He was very emotional and open…he was so excited [about] how lucky he was to be shooting this movie, and this character, and how great film making is. He was very earnest and uncynical, and pretty great.”

I don’t know about you, but all this talk from Driver is making me itch for a sequel trilogy rewatch.

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h/t Collider