SPOILERS: J.J. Abrams On Why 'Kylo Ren' Had To Do What He Did In STAR WARS: TFA
It's difficult to word this without SPOILING something, but at one point in the movie Adam Driver's Kylo Ren does something that takes him from cool new villain to one of the most reviled characters in Star Wars history. Director J.J. Abrams explains why he feels it needed to happen.
Massive SPOILERS for Star Wars: The Force Awakens ahead.
A lot of us figured it would happen, but I don't think any of us were actually ready to witness it! In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, we say goodbye to one of the most iconic, enduring, and best-loved characters in cinema history when Han Solo is slain by his own son, Kylo "Ben Solo" Ren.
It was a devastating moment for Star Wars fans, but something director J.J. Abrams says he felt had to happen for the sake of character progression during a post-screening Q&A at the Writers Guild of America this weekend.
“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 f—king 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. 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 - and not a villain who was the finished, ready-made villain, but someone who was in process. As a father, as a friend to people who have children, I know what it’s like to see struggle, to be part of struggle. I know how painful it can be. I know how real it is. And this is, of course, an insane extrapolated version. It’s this massive tradeoff: how can we possibly do that!? But… if we hadn’t done that, the movie wouldn’t have any guts at all. It felt very dangerous.”
Abrams adds that actually witnessing the scene, and Han's dying gesture of tenderness towards his lost son was "chilling". “Seeing these two actors, they weren’t chewing up the scenery. They were just doing this thing in a way that, frankly, was disturbing," he tells EW. "To see Harrison reach out and touch Adam. I know this sounds stupid, but literally watching it, I forgot — I forgot that he wasn’t his son. He did it so beautifully.”
This won't make fans feel any better, but Solo wasn't always going to be killed off in the script, and Lawrence Kasdan says he had written one draft of the script in which the old space rogue reunites with Leia at the end of the movie. Dammit! There's more from Abrams and Kasdan at the link below.