Adam Driver: Kylo Ren is More Like a Religious Fanatic than a Villain in Star Wars: The Force Awakens!
Few days ago Empire gave us our first look at Constable Zuvio, later they spoke with Andy Serkis and John Boyega about their characters in The Force Awakens. Today Empire reveals a brand new image of Adam Driver as Kylo Ren, who also shares his thoughts on the character.
From Empire:
Speaking exclusively to Empire for our Force Awakens issue (in all Light and Dark Side newsagents next week), Driver says that he sees Ren as more of a religious fanatic than a villain in the traditional sense. “When they think of their actions as morally justified,” Driver told us, “it makes them dangerous and unpredictable. There’s no level they won’t go to to accomplish what they’re after. I never thought of the character as an evil person.”
Empire promises more exclusives to come in the coming days, before they release their special The Force Awakens issue on November 26.
Founder of SWNN, MNN and The Cantina forums.
Born on April 24, 1980.
I just pray to ye gudz that the whole religious fundamentalist parable is handled better here than it was in the NJO.
Or handled better than it is in real life 😉
I’d really hate the film to be dated by trying to intentionally be “relevant”. The genuis of the original films is that they can be about any era in human history.
What are you talking about? The OT was largely representative of the Vietnam War. George Lucas was even planning on Apocalypse Now just prior to Star Wars. Ever wonder about the Ewoks? He had a primitive force armed with sticks taking down a technologically superior empire since pretty much the first draft. Not very subtle if you ask me.
You can have something be an allusion to modern times and still be timeless. The core idea of an ill-equipped band of rebels fighting for freedom will live on for ages, as will the core idea of people that do terrible things in the name of their ideology. It all depends on how they handle it.
Jedi was but Lucas has repeatedly brought up allusions to the Roman Empire and other historical examples.
It likely won’t as history as a tendency to repeat itself and certain concepts never truly die. Unless there is a dramatic change in human psychology, there will always be extremists who take their beliefs (religious or otherwise) and use them as a reason to hurt others.
Tell that to the NJO which smashed you over the head with 9/11 and Al-Queda references. I’m hoping that they make this more Spanish Inquistion-esque and less about ISIS so it doesn’t dare itself or steal sounbites from modern politicians.
i agree
Or how Abrams handled the war on terror parable in Into Dumbness.
That was more of the script (written by different people) than Abrams.
True but he still had final cut as does with this film.
I’m really liking this guy. Plus, the last photo is pretty sweet!
Can’t wait to see Adam Driver in action. Such an artist. He’s been so invisible from any promotion in the last few months…
only evil people claim they aren’t evil. adam driver is a boss.
Yeah, it’s kind of like that saying, “If you think your crazy, you’re probably not.” I think the reverse is true. Kylo Ren is all kinds of crazy and will undoubtedly perform some seriously evil actions as a result of his cult-minded insanity. I love it.
Same could apply to good people
Everything I hear of Kylo and the Knights of Ren makes me more excited than before. From the first leaked art of the hooded cyborg looking at Vaders hat like it was the Ark of the Covenant I was hoping it would be a sort of Vader/Imperial cult that worshiped Vader and and his bloodline. I think Kylo Ren may be searching for Vaders bloodline rather than being a part of it. Or he may not be a part of it naturally rather than by way of cloning/sith voodoo/dark side magics/etc…
I lean towards the idea that he lives in homage to Vader and is deluded into believing that the mask maketh the man… and therefore he says “fulfill our destiny” in the trailer. He might even be pretending to be Vader and have gotten a bit too absorbed in it. Perhaps he even offs a few old people because they know the true story. It is not like anyone alive in Episode VII ever knew real the face of Darth Vader – Luke and Maz perhaps. And who actually saw him him die who is not spouting anti-First Order propaganda? It is like Nolan’s Batman but for the antagonist.
Could be. Either way I like the fanatical aspect to his character and I think it adds another layer to the GFFA that a lot of people haven’t seen (or read as it were.)
A truly evil person betrays their conscience instead of living by it. Thus true evil usually involves self-deception.
There are three levels:
Evil by ignorance = stormtroopers
Evil by self-deception = Kylo Ren
but the worst is
Self-aware, fully knowing Evil, that KNOWS how evil it is and doesn’t care.
I think Palpatine falls into this category, as well as Darth Vader, but even then, there was a level of self-deception going on, like “for the greater good” was kind of what pulled Vader over, i think. IDK, I’ll let you guys figure that one out.
But true evil knows how evil it is, but is evil in spite of its knowledge, on purpose.
It’s in the Bible and everything.
“More like a religious fanatic”
Hope the galactic pc ploice don’t try and draw comparisons to modern terrorism :/
If not, you can count on earth’s pc police to make that point
Because the prequels never drew parallels with (then) current events.
dI was pretty sure when I saw the hand-shaped blood-like mark on finn’s helmet that there will be something like this… he really looked like a fanatic in all the places Ive seen him
Get the feeling that TFA’s The Knights of Ren are influenced by Kurosawa’s ‘Seven Samurai’. 7 Ronin trawling the universe, fuelled by their own agenda. Their leader (Kylo Ren) appears driven by his own ideology, rather than following the will of Snoke. Possibly Snoke is just a means to the end, resulting in potential conflict between the two.
That’s laughable, considering who Snoke is.
Yeah like you know.
I have no idea.
ISISITH
And sense [Apple designer] Jonny Ive apparently had an influence on Kylo’s saber design,….iSith.
Nazi SS officers, including those who ran extermination camps, were also nfanatics who thought of their actions as morally justified. The same applies to ISIS fighters/terrorists today for example. That doesn’t mean they are not villains. I understand Adam’s point, but I disagree with his argument.
Except, Seven Samuari, they were basically good and trying to help a village. Adore that film.
How can you disagree with his thoughts on the character if you haven’t even seen the movie?
As an actor, though, it’s kinda his job to put himself in the shoes of his character. So if Kylo doesn’t think he’s a villain, it makes sense that Adam would agree.
Well, there were plenty of Nazis that believed they were on a righteous crusade for sure, but I think a good number of them were just doing their jobs and caught up in something they had no say in, more like the Empire.
KoR is like Knights Templar inside FO structure.
This became pretty obvious since the character’s general makeup was introduced. Hopefully, it’ll put an end to all that nonsense that Kylo couldn’t possibly be speaking to his Darth Vader shrine (the mask) on the trailer.
Well it beats trade blockades and senates I guess
Don’t forget the atrocious taxation of said trade routes to outlying systems. Never did I identify more with movie characters as I did with them, who faced such an uncertain financial future so bravely and with dignity.
Meesa people gonna die?
“I never THOUGHT of the character as an evil person”
Did Driver just let something slip?
Hitler said the same about himself
I don’t think so. He’s mentioned before that “bad guys” in real life rarely consider themselves bad or evil. It’s the opposition who sees them that way.
Then there’s the whole thing about measuring someone with your own moral standards and ethics and judging them accordingly if they don’t measure up regardless of whether their standards of ethics and morality are the same.
That’s about as true as anything can be. People are capable of justifying even the most heinous acts, and ofttimes the greatest evils are done with the best intentions.
As both a reader and an author, I am always turned off by characters who seem to be evil for the sake of evil. Palpatine is about the only exception to that rule, and that’s mostly due to the actor.
Actually, I was referring to the wording he used in terms of the potential longevity of his character.
I just find it strange that he used the term “I never thought…” instead of “I don’t think of the character as an evil person”. When I read it I felt like Adam was suggesting that Kylo won’t be returning for the next film.
Sorry, didn’t make myself very clear.
I know what you meant. My personal opinion though.. I think we’ll have Driver at least through VIII. I think it would be a missed opportunity for the writers to not have Driver as our trilogy antagonist, like Vader, something the PT failed to do. Unless they give a damn good reason to kill him off, then I don’t see Driver being gone after VII
The antagonist was always there in the PT: Senator/Chancellor/Emperor Palpatine aka Darth Sidious. Maul, Dooku, Grievous and Vader (even in the OT) were just henchmen.
It’s the same thing with Voldemort in Potter or Sauron in TLotR: the true antagonist is always pulling the strings behind the scenes. It’s their henchmen that do all of the dirty work.
I bet it’ll be the same in the ST. Kylo Ren may/may not be back in Eps. VIII and IX, but the guy seems to be nothing but a minion of the true antagonist: Snoke.
I meant that the PT didn’t have one continuous antagonist to go behind Sidious like Vader was in the OT. If Snoke is our big bad (almost 110% sure he is) then I would like Kylo to have that Vader type role behind Snoke like Vader was to Sidious.
I think he was talking about how he approached the character as an actor. For instance, how he prepared mentally for the role.
Of course he’d speak in the past tense about work he *did* many months ago.
To him, now, he’s Adam Driver again, and Kylo Ren is in the past.
But what is this “Adam Driver” guy talking about? Every idiot KNOWS that Luke is Kylo Ren! Pay no attention to the fact that Kylo Ren and Luke are not even the same physical size, this Adam Driver guy is just a masked stunt double for Mark Hamill! DUH! Because movies ALWAYS hire talented, known actors for roles like that. Open your eyes, sheeple!
The sarcasm is strong with this one.
I like that when people talk about people who do terrible things and think they’re morally justified, they never use US officials as an example.
Then you’re not paying attention. I hear the United States and it’s officials getting blamed for a slew of things.
I’m talking about specifically associating them with a moral delusion. The only people that say those things are on the outskirts of society or called conspiracy theorists.
Basically, the official narrative we all get is that the US never does anything on purpose, or when they do there’s a good reason for it.
I don’t believe that for a second. I loathe conspiracy theorists but I’m also well aware that a lot of what the government does is to satisfy its own self interests. Sometimes that’s in accordance with what’s good for the people; sometimes it’s not. It’s a rare day when I actually encounter folks that believe the U.S. can do no wrong.
I loathe the narrative. And at the end of the day, that’s what I’m talking about. Not this vague notion that people know government does some shady stuff. But the idea that it deserves a benefit of a doubt, despite the fact it is built with people who have to lie and spin the truth just to get elected, and continually serve their own interests.
Despite this, for the most part, the government is usually seen as some incompetent benefactor, especially after they’re caught doing something especially pernicious.
Only assholes get power.
And you know what happens when someone rebels to kick the assholes out? they choose an asshole as their new leader.
Basic human nature, I don’t know why you’re singling out the US government, of all the hundreds of nations who have done evil shit, why should the us be treated any different?
Government does bad things sometimes, sometimes in the shuffle unintentionally, sometimes on purpose.
Ethically speaking, the US is a way better bet than ISIS. the us’s acts of evil are usually based on ignorance and outright stupidity. As opposed to, say, North Korea or ISIS, which have ignorance AND actual nefarious intentions.
So no, I do not see what you have against the US specifically. Human’s are assholes. You’re just gonna have to live with that – non-violently if possible.
The US isn’t evil as a whole. There are alot of good people in many positions throughout the government. However there is also a group of very evil people who have sold out to the corporate global elite. Most of the government is compartmentalized. Good people thinking they are working for the greater good but have no idea what the end result will be. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the west could have brought some peace to the world. Nope that didn’t happen did it? The US started to more aggressively expand their corporate empire. Creating and funding freedom fighter/terrorists to destabilize regions they want corporate control of. Another entity is the western main stream media which is nothing but propaganda and lies which by the way is owned by the same very corporate global elite that buys out our politicians. Left and right is just and illusion to divide the masses. Clinton is a Neocon just like Bush, both sold out. The corporate elite do not care if it is a Democrat or Republican in office, as long as it is the ones the own. Then the media propaganda starts and they sink actually good people who are running for president and prop up the two on each side they want. Then the fight over silly issues begins like gay rights, abortion and all that little garbage, but never focus on real issues like currency or banking. Fact: The banking transition from Bush to Obama was absolutely seamless. Sorry to post non star wars related material just replying to your comment. Signed an American
He has said this before. It makes me think the Knights of Ren might have been trained by Luke. But Luke lost control of them when they misplaced their ideologies.
Never considered that but holy shit, I think you might just be right.
Weird. It’s like the ‘Fox News’ effect – in a galaxy far, far away: How would the galaxy at large not just KNOW Vader had redeemed himself? (Like wouldn’t Luke have told the story of the duel w/ Vader + the Emperor’s final minutes on the Death Star 2? (And wouldn’t Leia alo, in order to keep her job, kinda HAVE to spin her relationship / being Darth Vader’s daughter in such a way to have explained her whole backstory, all the way through Padme?) The bit where Adam Driver says that bit about ‘finishing what you started’ while showing Vader’s burnt Endor funeral mask just smells a bit off; like, why would this plot thread even be necessary? What villain would want to emulate a Sith Lord who wound up a traitor to his cause / ‘The Chosen One’ who brought balance to The Force? Odd…
Maybe Luke and Leia decided to keep it quiet. It would not look good to have two Rebel superstars come out and say they were related to one of the Empire’s most notorious butchers.
Then again – journalists being (by & large) bottom-feeders, wouldn’t the SW galaxy equivalent to TMZ already have LONG blown the lid off this anyhow? Still smells off. Seems Leia & Luke by hiding their lineage (on dad’s side anyway) stand to lose A LOT more than just telling the story straight-up immediately after Endor / ROTJ. Just my $.02…
That said, still very much looking forward to Ep. VII – not a nitpicker like that! (Hey, we survived the Prequels – JJ can only take us up, as far as I’m concerned)
I don’t understand what you mean by “The Fox News effect,” but my guess is you weren’t being complimentary of them. To be clear, I lean right in my political views, but I’ve watched shows from Fox News and MSNBC (NBC News also) many times. To me, there is bias in all news media, whether it’s left or right; that’s just human nature. The best a network can do is try to bring on an equal amount of people from both sides of the political spectrum. In my opinion, some shows do that well and others don’t. I’m willing to listen to views from the left and right as long as they are presented in a respectful way.
Anyway, back to talking about Star Wars: You bring up good points in your post. What exactly is it that Kylo Ren wants to “finish?” I’m wondering if there was more to Vader’s mission than just simply conquering the galaxy, joining with his son Luke, and overthrowing the Emperor. Maybe Vader had other goals that haven’t been revealed. And how much does the galaxy know about what really happened? I can hardly wait to see the film and find out more about Ren and the other characters.
There is that whole bit in the ‘Aftermath’ (new novel) where one of the Emperor’s remaining dignitaries (who seems to know a lot about the Dark Side + its lore, being buds w/ Palpy & all…) mentions a theory Sidious shared with him about the origins of the Dark Side being “outside the galaxy” – muddy stuff, but anything’s possible…
Your point on Vader having other goals: He doesn’t strike me as complex / multi-layered as Sidious. Whereas Sidious played the long-ball / had a vision for the downfall of the Jedi, I feel Vader by comparison was a much simpler creature: Save Padme => Dark Side = OK (more of a side-effect); Anakin didn’t really hatch as a baddie, whereas Palpatine / Sid was pretty much a rotter from the get-go
Here is a quote, I said this in another thread:
“I think Kylo will be a main character we follow. Not just a bad guy and not just a bad guy with depth. The movie is not about Rey and Finn nor is it about Rey and Poe, I will not be surprised if it’s about Rey and Keylo.
The movie is about Rey and Kylo, the Solo twins we all know about.
Shots of Adam Drivers face to date: 0”
He is too good of an actor to do a boring a villain. You hear powerful messed up emotion in his voice when he says the ‘I’ll finish what you started’ line.
Actually there was a picture of Adam driver/Kylo Ren’s face early on.
Yes, but that was effectively a behind-the-scenes promo photo. We’ve seen nothing from the movie itself, and even the shot of him without the mask is carefully chosen to only show the back of his hair. I wouldn’t be too surprised if he didn’t look exactly like that photograph.
He’s not wearing the helmet in one of the trailer shots. Safe to say he will have his duel without the helmet.
And there’s Annie Leibovitz’s (sp?) ‘official’ photo spread a few weeks back, where his lid’s off & he’s in the snow…
Yeah, that’s the one I’m referring to.
I just started watching Girls and I can’t believe how weird Adam Driver looks and acts. Like he is a great actor but he is just sooooooooo weird. When he takes off his mask someone has to comment on how weird he looks because if they act like he looks normal it is going to pull me out of the movie.
1) They live in a galaxy with much weirder, so I highly doubt it.
2) He looks like a relatively normal human. I could see him walk down the street and I wouldn’t react any differently than I would to the vast majority of humanity.
Idk I think the cantina had aliens that weren’t as bizarre looking as Driver.
Nice. And reality reflects art in Paris last Friday, I guess…
I am looking so forward to this film. I can remember standing in line for hours at the one theater in our town showing Star Wars. Not just thru one showing, but two… The group of my fellow kids would take turns running the nearby 7-11 to bring back needed sodas, and gum and chips…
I don’t know if I’ll see it on opening weekend, since so many theaters have sold out, but I think it will be fun to have my old 1977 friends meet up and tailgate and then see the movie…
“You want to step on my balls?”-Kylo Ren
Yes, there will be a treasure trove of mashup material for Kylo Ren.
Leave this here, hope you like it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEH11VwC86A