STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS - A Few Character Details Revealed About Villain Kylo Ren



This post contains minor spoilers for STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS.

What's there not to like about a Star Wars villain who covers his face and wields a red lightsaber? It's the a character kids strive to defeat with their imagination and will have adults enamored because everybody loves a great villain.

Actor Adam Driver is playing the main villain, Kylo Ren, in STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS. Not much is known about the new villain but in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly the veil of secrecy has begun to be lifted. 

Writer and director J.J. Abrams spoke about the mask, that lightsaber and Kylo Ren's apparent obsession with Darth Vader.

“The movie explains the origins of the mask and where it’s from, but the design was meant to be a nod to the Vader mask,” Abrams tells EW. “[Ren] is well aware of what’s come before, and that’s very much a part of the story of the film. The lightsaber is something that he built himself, and is as dangerous and as fierce and as ragged as the character. 
“As you see in the best of storytelling, and no doubt the best of Star Wars, these are tales in which an everyperson has to step up. And I think that what makes Ren so unique is that he isn’t as fully formed as when we meet a character such as Darth Vader,” Abrams says. “And I think that there are two sides to the Force. Both sides, arguably, would see themselves as the hero of their story, and I think that applies here.”

But what about his name? Abrams reveals a minor spoiler detail about the Kylo Ren name.

"He is a character who came to the name Kylo Ren when he joined a group called the Knights of Ren."

So Kylo Ren is like a name that is taken on similar to how the Sith used the 'Darth' name. This is a fascinating reveal that was not detailed any further by Abrams.

Writer Lawrence Kasdan also chimed in about Driver's performance as the movie villain.

“I’ve written four Star Wars movies now, and there’s never been a character quite like the one that Adam plays," Kasdan says. "I think you’re going to see something that’s brand new to the saga. 
“He’s full of emotion. No matter how we express ourselves in the world, whether we hide it and act very calm or whether we’re very out there and demonstrative, everybody’s roiling with emotion. And you want your characters to be that way, too. Then they have to deal with their emotions as best they can, with what they are.”

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS releases on December 18, 2015.