Originally published December 22, 2015. Updated April 15, 2018.
Warning. Major spoilers for Star Wars: The Force Awakens follow. You have been warned…
With Star Wars: The Force Awakens breaking box office records across the globe, director J.J. Abrams has been discussing some of the more spoilery aspects of the film, including Rey’s backstory [see here], surprise cameos [see here] and R2-D2’s role [see here].
Well, Abrams has now turned his attention to Kylo Ren, speaking to Entertainment Weekly about the former Ben Solo’s decision to complete his journey to the Dark Side by killing his father, Han Solo.
“Long before we had this title, the idea of The Force Awakens was that this would become the evolution of not just a hero, but a villain,” states Abrams. “And not a villain who was the finished, ready-made villain, but someone who was in process. Star Wars had the greatest villain in cinema history. So, how you bring a new villain into that world is a very tricky thing. We knew we needed to do something fucking bold. The only reason why Kylo Ren has any hope of being a worthy successor is because we lose one of the most beloved characters… [Han Solo’s death is] this massive tradeoff. How can we possible do that!? But… if we hadn’t done that, the movie wouldn’t have any guts at all. It felt very dangerous.”
SEE ALSO: One new Star Wars: The Force Awakens character was originally supposed to die
Michael Arndt, the initial screenwriter on Episode VII, then went on to discuss how Kylo Ren evolved from his original draft:
“In my early drafts, my thinking was we had to bridge the end of Return of the Jedi to what happens in this movie, and we didn’t want everybody to start off all together. We wanted them to be spread all throughout the galaxy. We came up with a backstory that Luke had a pupil who turned against him and fought him, and killed all the other pupils, and that was a thing that exploded the family and destroyed Han and Leia’s relationship. I had thought Han’s story and Leia’s story was just about them coming back together. At the end of the movie they would have reconciled and gotten over their differences. And you would have said, ‘Okay, bad stuff happened, but at least they’re back together again. J.J. rightly asked, ‘What is Han doing in this movie?’ If we’re not going to have something important and irreversible happen to him, then he kind of feels like luggage. He feels like this great, sexy piece of luggage you have in your movie. But he’s not really evolving. He’s not really pushing the story forward.”
SEE ALSO: Follow all of our Star Wars coverage here
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is out now and sees J.J. Abrams directing returning stars Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) and Tim Rose (Admiral Ackbar), in addition to Adam Driver (Girls), Oscar Isaac (A Most Violent Year), Andy Serkis (Avengers: Age of Ultron), Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina), John Boyega (Attack the Block), Daisy Ridley (Silent Witness), Gwendoline Christie (Game of Thrones), Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave), Ken Leung (Lost), Miltos Yerolemou (Game of Thrones), Max von Sydow (The Exorcist), Jessica Henwick (Spirit Warriors), Christina Chong (24: Live Another Day), Simon Pegg (Star Trek) and newcomers Crystal Clarke and Pip Andersen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PL18yMRIfoszEaHYNDTy5C-cH9Oa2gN5ng&v=ymcu7eigVyg
