Did you hear about Adam Driver’s attempt to bring Kylo Ren/Ben Solo back from the dead to make a new movie? Apparently Driver really liked the role and wanted to do a redemption story for Han and Leia’s fallen son. Well, that’s over with now. From Variety:
Bad news for “Star Wars” fans: Adam Driver is squashing any possibility of returning as Kylo Ren to the galaxy.
On a recent episode of “The Rich Eisen Show,” Eisen asked Driver if he thought he’d ever play the villain in the franchise again. The “Girls” actor responded: ‘Yeah, it’s over… No more ‘Star Wars.’” We “tried to do one more,” said Driver “but they’re like, ‘No, he’s dead,’” referring to Disney studio executives Bob Iger and Alan Bergman, who rejected a screenplay for a standalone movie centered on Kylo Ren that he’d pitched with Steven Soderbergh.
Said pitch was that Ben Solo turned out to be alive…somehow, said someone who actually forced themselves to watch Rise Of Skywalker Palpatine…and go on a sort of galactic walkabout for redemption. Kathleen Kennedy was on board with the idea because she seemed to love bad ideas, but Iger, in a rare moment of intellect, canned the idea. It’s now one of the many planned Star Wars productions that never happened, only the reason this was learned about is that Driver basically told everybody he wanted to do it.
So now Driver himself has completely given up on the project. Oh, he’d still do it if Dave Filoni, current Star Wars Sith Lord, opted to do it and could get new Disney emperor, Josh D’Amaro, to go along with it, but if he tried it seems he failed.
This is the best outcome because that was a bad idea.
So Driver really liked playing the role. Search me why, but scripting could have been a factor. Ahmed Best really liked being Jar Jar Binks and look at the hell that character got. As I’ve been noting for a few years now, actors have a different connection to these projects than the fan base. They like playing this role, working with those people, or just really want the money and prestige. In general I’m not going to say they’re wrong for it. It’s an observation and problems with characters and actor choices come down to the director, screenwriters, and casting directors. Actors look at a script and say “I want to play that role” while fans say “I want to see this story”, or not.
I’m also not going to pretend that Kylo Ben Solo didn’t have fans outside of the crazy “Reylo” crowd that wanted to force Driver to end his marriage just as their child was born to get together with Daisy Ridley because they’re ship-happy morons who don’t know how acting works and don’t really care about any romance outside of their shipping culture. Fans did fly that banner by airplane asking to save the movie. That’s legit. Dumb and a waste of money, but legit. Somebody really wanted to see more Ben Solo, or maybe more Kylo Ren, despite the movie being Ben’s redemption away from Ren. No, the problem is that the intended idea was just wrong. It’s not like Disney era Star Wars has cared about canon before. Rey somehow got a new Force power never seen before with very little training. I’m not even against Force Healing, but it came out of nowhere and I guess went back in time for Ben to become one with the Force, like his also redeemed grandfather before him.
So then why did Ben Solo need a whole movie to be redeemed? Again, I haven’t wasted my time watching this mistake of a movie that nobody liked when it tried to please fans of both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi. However, the disappearing after death trick is a Jedi thing, something tied to the Light Side, meaning Ben had to have had Anakin’s redemption. Luke burned Vader’s body and we’ve speculated why he didn’t vanish like Obi-Wan in the first movie for decades. Snoke didn’t disappear. Darth Sidious did, but he kind of got blasted by his own lightning and exploded in the bits of Death Star. Darth Maul was retconned into losing his lower half and forcing junk into a prosthetic crotch and legs. Ben died. His body disappeared Jedi style, marking I’m assuming his redemption. He doesn’t need to come back except that Driver wanted to play him again.
Speaking of Maul, his return in the Dave Filoni Clone Wars series was for the same reason Boba Fett keeps getting out of the Sarlacc pit in both the dropped “Legends” time period of books and officially in The Book Of Boba Fett: fans, the creators, or both liked the character so much that they were returned. I’m already on record on my thoughts about Fett (overrated), but for Maul to return he ends up altering his character from silent Sith assassin to wanna-be mob boss. Fett was a bounty hunter who died like a chump, but got to be badass in extended media because…his armor was cool, I guess. The Mandalorian culture came about to make Fett cooler still, as was Jango Fett’s role in the clones and Boba being Jango’s clone kid instead of his biological son. There was no narrative need for either of them to return, and there wasn’t one for Kylo Ben either.
So nothing of any real value was lost, something we sadly can’t say for dad’s solo movie (no pun intended). There was no reason to make this movie. The character’s story is over. Rey has moved on to some unnecessary destiny, and Star Wars has already moved on to ruin Ashoka Tano, which kind of fits in with yesterday’s discussion on legacy. Trying to have Ashoka or Rey take Luke’s story by damaging him as a character. Meanwhile, they had Kylo Ren kill Han Solo, ensuring fans would never get to see the old gang back together in full. That one’s on J.J. Abrams, not Rian “Subvert For Subversion’s Sake” Johnson. Congrats if you liked playing the role, but that guy said it himself: “let the past die, kill it if you must”. I guess that only matters when it’s your wants, not the larger fanbase or the needs of the story. That is why you fail.
