Adam Driver Says Kylo Ren's 'Star Wars' Arc Was Rewritten

When Star Wars fans recognize Adam Driver, they don't really see him as the sequel trilogy's eventual anti-hero—but as the villain. "Once a month someone will let me know that I killed Han Solo," he told CNN on the press tour for his new film, Ferrari. At the original premiere of The Force Awakens, the actor recalls, "I was holding my wife’s hand, and she’s like, ‘You’re really cold. Are you OK?’ Because I just knew what was coming—I kill Harrison—and I didn’t know how this audience of 2,000 people was going to respond to it, you know?"

It was the beginning of a dark arc for his character, Kylo Ren, who was reportedly never meant to find redemption end of the trilogy. According to a new interview with Driver, director J.J. Abrams originally intended for Kylo Ren to become even more evil than Darth Vader. "His idea was that [Kylo’s] journey was the opposite journey of Vader, where Vader starts the most confident and the most committed to the dark side. And then by the last movie, he’s the most vulnerable and weak," Driver revealed on The Rich Eisen Show.

"He wanted to start with the opposite," the actor continued. "This character was the most confused and vulnerable, and by the end of the three movies, he would be the most committed to the dark side. I tried to keep that arc in mind, regardless if that wound up not being the journey anyway, because it changed while shooting. But I was still focused on that."

Rian Johnson (Knives Out) would later take over for the second film in the sequel trilogy, The Last Jedi. According to Driver, Johnson rewrote many of The Force Awakens's major arcs. "Evolving into Ben Solo... That was never a part of it," Driver continued. "He was Ben Solo from the beginning, but there was never a version where we’d see Ben Solo when I first signed up for it." Abrams later returned to finish the trilogy. He amended even more from the story due to Johnson's involvement, including the true parentage of Daisy Ridley's hero, Rey. But even if Driver eventually became a hero, he'll never live down one simple truth: he played the guy who killed Han Solo.

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