The Star Wars sequel trilogy had its fair share of problems (we still can’t figure out why Supreme Leader Snoke had to exist), but for many fans, the introduction of Kylo Ren/Ben Solo made the films worth watching.
Ren — the son of Star Wars icons Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess General Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher) — went through a classic redemption arc over the course of The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
From killing his father to saving Rey (Daisy Ridley) and sacrificing himself on Exegol, Adam Driver’s character has become a fan-favorite. Even nearly two years after the Skywalker Saga officially ended, Kylo Ren remains a popular subject in Star Wars fan art and fan fiction.
Bringing the ruthless leader of the Knights of Ren to life, though, seemingly involved some hilarious moments. Following the theatrical release of Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker, sound editor Matthew Wood appeared on the SoundWorks Collection podcast to share details about his time on a Star Wars set:
“The very last recording we did was, we had to change some lines of Kylo when he had his mask on… I went to [Adam Driver’s] house in Brooklyn … I ended up opening up one of his closets where he had all of his suits, and I just pushed the suits out of the way and said, ‘hang your head in here.'”
Although Wood didn’t share exactly when this amusing situation occurred, he did confirm that Driver left to appear on NBC’s Late Night With Seth Meyers immediately after he recorded his final Kylo Ren lines.
Driver was featured on the nighttime talk show on November 20, 2019, just a month before the last sequel trilogy film hit theaters! (Talk about last minute.) While we’re not sure exactly which bits of dialogue Driver recorded in his clothes closet, you’ll probably never find Ren as menacing again — just picture him with his head buried in Armani.
Recently, Daisy Ridley confirmed that Ben Solo was always going to die, so it seems that a post-Rise of Skywalker return for the character was never in the cards. This doesn’t mean, however, that we couldn’t see him return in a prequel series.
In Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi, a flashback sequence explained the destruction of the new Jedi Temple built by Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) following the Order 66 chaos on Coruscant. Before the academy was destroyed, Skywalker saw that the dark side of the Force had already corrupted his nephew, Ben Solo.
In an instinctive move, Skywalker drew his lightsaber while Solo slept. Young Solo believed his uncle was trying to murder him and lashed out with his Force powers, telekinetically collapsing his sleeping hut. Solo fled outside, where a lightning storm destroyed the Temple, killing all of the Padawans inside.
Now that The Mandalorian Season 2 finale informed fans that Grogu became Skywalker’s Padawan 25 years prior to the sequel trilogy, there would certainly be potential for the rumored new Luke Skywalker series to explore young Solo’s descent to the dark side as one of the foundling’s fellow students at the Jedi Academy.
For now, Lucasfilm has not confirmed anything about the reported Skywalker show and we’ll just have to wait and see where Skywalker, Solo, and “Baby Yoda” show up next in the Star Wars universe.
What do you think about Adam Driver hilariously recording Kylo Ren lines in his closet? Are you a fan of Kylo Ren redemption or would you have preferred to see him remain on the dark side of the Star Wars franchise?
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Credit: Lucasfilm
