It seems as if new ‘Star Wars” details are emerging every day, and this latest bit is something that we”ve been speculating about for some time.
In speaking with Empire about the “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” villain, director J.J. Abrams revealed that Adam Driver”s Kylo Ren is not who — or what — we may have imagined him to be.
“Kylo Ren is not a Sith,” Abrams said. “He works for Supreme Leader Snoke, who is a powerful figure on the dark side of the Force.”
Snoke is the character that Andy Serkis plays in a motion capture suit.
When asked about the nature of The First Order, Abrams likened them to Nazis, as George Lucas did with The Empire in the original films.
“That all came out of conversations about what would have happened if the Nazis all went to Argentina but then started working together again?” the director explained. “What could be born of that? Could The First Order exist as a group that actually admired The Empire? Could the work of The Empire be seen as unfulfilled? And could Vader be a martyr? Could there be a need to see through what didn”t get done?”
From what we”ve seen in the pre-release materials, one of the striking elements of this film is how it plays with the dark and light side of the Force.
During his San Diego Comic Con appearance Driver said that he didn”t necessarily think of his character as evil, explaining that Kylo Ren simply feels that he his “in the right.”
Abrams later revealed that Kylo Ren is not, in fact, his name, but is rather a moniker that he was given when he joined a group known as the “Knights of Ren.” Further, he is obsessed with Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader.
We”ve been putting all of these clues together to come up with some theories about who Kylo Ren REALLY is, which you can check out here or in the video below.
(Side note: we shot this video a week or so ago, but it includes the idea that Ren is not a Sith.)