Adam Driver Reveals JJ Abrams’ Original Story Arc for Kylo Ren & It Didn’t Involve Redemption

One of the most ridiculous aspects of the Star Wars The sequel trilogy was like JJ Abrams tried to redeem Ben Solo, aka Kylo Ren, after killing his father Han Solo. I never believed in that redemption arc and apparently Adam Driver I never believed it either.

There was an original story arc for Kylo Ren that didn’t involve any kind of redemption, and while things changed over the course of the three films, Driver remained true to the original concept of the character. During a recent interview on The Rich Eisen ShowDriver explained Kylo Ren’s original journey and how he would have been the opposite of Darth Vader:

“I had an overall narrative arc in mind [Star Wars: The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams] he wanted to do, which later changed, but his idea was this: almost the opposite journey of Vader, where Vader starts out the most confident, the most committed to the Dark Side and, in the last film, he’s the most vulnerable and weak. He wanted to start from the opposite, this character was the most confused and vulnerable and, at the end of the three films, he would be the one most committed to the Dark Side. I tried to keep that story arc in mind regardless of whether it ended up not being the journey, because it changed, obviously, as we were shooting. But I was still focused on that.”

He also talked about Ryan Johnson’S The Last Jedi and how while going in a different direction, the director was still following that original arc for Kylo Ren. Everything has changed, albeit with the The Rise of Skywalker:

“With Rian, it took a different direction, but still in line with the character. Then last, it changed to something about [Kylo and Rey] and the dyad and things like that. And evolving into Ben Solo was never part of it. Well, Ben Solo, he was Ben Solo from the beginning, but there was never a version where we see Ben Solo when I signed on.”

Kylo Ren’s original arc made a lot more sense than what Abrams ended up doing. Why did Abrams change the trajectory of the character’s arc!? Regardless of how the films turned out, at least Kylo Ren’s story arc would have been more interesting than it was.