REY & KYLO REN: IT’S COMPLICATED
After their epic lightsaber battle in Star
Wars: The Force Awakens, the rivalry between Rey and Kylo Ren seemed cut and dried. Yay for her, boo to him.
But as more of a connection is revealed between the two in the follow- up, Star
Wars: The Last Jedi ( in theaters Thursday night), it becomes clear there’s more going on than the usual hero vs. villain fare. For writer/ director Rian Johnson, their relationship is “one of the most interesting ingredients in the whole stew.”
The Force Awakens introduced the journeys of Kylo ( Adam Driver) and Rey ( Daisy Ridley), first with an interrogation scene where she surprised him in how strong she was with the Force. Then came the throwdown where Rey scarred Kylo, aka Ben Solo, as a measure of revenge after he murdered his father, Han.
Trailers for The Last Jedi, though, hinted that Kylo— who had once been a pupil of his uncle, Luke Skywalker, before putting on a menacing mask — might be tempting her toward the dark side. Or Rey could be his way of finding some redemption, setting the stage for galactic intrigue. ( Without saying too much, their destinies do continue to unravel and entwine in the movie, and they even have a few scenes together where they aren’t trying to kill each other.)
The Star Wars faithful will recall that the Luke/ Darth Vader dynamic had its complex aspects, too. Luke ended up finding some good within his father, even after Vader chopped off Luke’s hand and tried to kill his friends.
Johnson reminds that Kylo isn’t a strong, imposing monsterwhoneeds to be defeated like his Sith Lord granddad. “He skips straight to what Vader became, which is a villain who has more of a connection to a hero and is not just someone to be vanquished,” Johnson says. “He’s someone who’s going to take amore complicated journey.”