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Adam Driver wanted the 'Star Wars' trilogy to explore Kylo Ren’s childhood

Adam Driver wanted to see more of Ben Solo's backstory (Image by Lucasfilm)
Adam Driver wanted to see more of Ben Solo's backstory (Image by Lucasfilm)

Over the last few years, Adam Driver has proven to be one of the most talented actors of his generation.

Not only did he earn Oscar nominations for his performances in BlacKkKlansman and Marriage Story, but he also shot to mainstream prominence thanks to his role as Kylo Ren in the Star Wars sequel trilogy.

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Of course, Ren’s chosen name was Ben Solo, as he was the only child of Han Solo and General Leia Organa, while he was trained to be a Jedi by his uncle Luke Skywalker, too.

Unfortunately we didn’t get to see much of Ren’s backstory in either The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, or The Rise Of Skywalker. It turns out that Driver had given a lot of thought to Ren’s past.

World Premiere of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” – Arrivals – Los Angeles, California, U.S., 09/12/2017  – Actor Adam Driver. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
World Premiere of “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” – Arrivals – Los Angeles, California, U.S., 09/12/2017 – Actor Adam Driver. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

That’s according to Lev Grossman, who wrote a huge feature piece on The Rise Of Skywalker for Vanity Fair, during which time he talked to the entire cast. Not everything could be included in the article, though, including Driver’s deep thoughts on Ben Solo’s childhood.

Grossman told Inverse, “I think probably the thing that was missing for me, I wanted to see more about Kylo’s childhood. I thought they would go back to show us more about why he turned to the dark side. [Adam Driver] had a lot of interesting thoughts about Ben Solo’s childhood.”

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“This is actually something Adam Driver said. He said that both Han Solo and Leia were way too self-absorbed and into this idea of themselves as heroes to really be attentive parents in the way a young and tender Kylo Ren really needed. There wasn’t really that much of it in the movie so I just think we have to assume his childhood sucked.”