Kylo Ren

Darth Vader (grandfather)

### Occupation

Master of the Knights of RenWarlord and Second Supreme Leader of the First Order

Apprentice of Snoke (formerly)

## Appearances

### Debut

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Kylo Ren, originally born as Ben Solo, is the central antagonist of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. He appears as the main antagonist of the first two installments, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi; and he progressively becomes the deuteragonist of the third and final installment, The Rise of Skywalker. He is also the overarching antagonist of the second and final season of the animated television series Star Wars Resistance.

## Biography

Kylo Ren, originally born as Ben Solo, is the central antagonist of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. He appears as the main antagonist of the first two instalments, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi; and he progressively becomes the deuteragonist of the third and final instalment, The Rise of Skywalker. He is also the overarching antagonist of the second and final season of the animated television series Star Wars Resistance

He was the dark, powerful, and extremely obsessive Master of the Knights of Ren, as well as the apprentice of Supreme Leader Snoke, before killing him to become the new and second Supreme Leader of the First Order and the new apprentice of Emperor Palpatine. He was also the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, the nephew of Luke Skywalker, the grandson of Darth Vader (Anakin Skywalker) and Padmé Amidala as well as the archenemy-turned-ally of Rey.

He was portrayed by Adam Driver in his first villainous role.

## Trivia

* It is possible that in order to complete his training of whatever Snoke wants him to be, Kylo Ren had to hunt down and kill Luke Skywalker.
	+ While this could be possible, he seems to have failed since Luke became one with the Force in peace.
* Even though Supreme Leader Snoke was the founder of the First Order and the one who seduced Kylo to the dark side, Kylo was assumed to be the main antagonist of the sequel trilogy as a whole because he was the immediate threat that Rey had to face and turned out to be even more dangerous than Snoke. However, Emperor Palpatine was revealed to be the creator of Snoke and the First Order, and that he was manipulating Kylo the entire time; thus, Palpatine is the true main antagonist of the sequel trilogy.
* Kylo shares a number of similarities with the Legends character Darth Caedus, in that both were sons of Han and Leia Solo, and both were trained as Jedi before falling to the dark side.
* Prior to the release of The Force Awakens, many fans questioned if Kylo Ren and Darth Vader were related due to their similarities, which turned out to be true.
* In the movie novelization of The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren is revealed to believe that the reason the Galactic Empire lost to the Rebellion was not because of poor strategy or arrogance, but because of sentiment, and that Darth Vader and Luke's compassion for each other were what caused the Empire to collapse.
	+ Also in the novelization, Snoke is also revealed to have chosen Kylo Ren as his apprentice because the former believes the latter to be a focal point in the Force; a perfect blending of light and dark due to his heritage as Darth Vader's grandson.
* A scene in The Last Jedi that caused some controversy was that during Kylo Ren and Rey's Force-Bond, Rey sees a shirtless Kylo Ren. This scene, despite being somewhat gratuitous in nature, was established by director Rian Johnson as Rey being able to see Kylo Ren entirely wherever he was and during whatever he was doing when they are bonded through the Force, not just seeing his eyes or hearing his voice. The director also explains that his intent was to show the progressive increase of intimacy between the two characters.
* While Kylo Ren ultimately redeemed himself in The Rise of Skywalker, it wasn't originally planned for him to be redeemed: the original script written by Colin Trevorrow, the original director of the film, had Kylo Ren rejecting any chance of redemption and ultimately dying at the hands of Rey and the Force ghosts of Luke, Obi-Wan and Yoda. Furthermore, Kylo Ren would have been revealed to have killed Rey's parents under Snoke's orders, as Emperor Palpatine didn't come back from the dead. Had this version of the story been kept in the finished film, Kylo Ren's character arc would have played out differently to that of Darth Vader, which was the original intention according to Adam Driver.
	+ Nevertheless, while Kylo ultimately redeemed himself, his character arc ended differently to that of Darth Vader: while Anakin Skywalker failed to save Padmé Amidala, the woman whom he loved, Ben Solo was able to save Rey, the woman whom he loved, yet at the cost of his own life.
* Kylo Ren was originally going to be one of the many characters in Ralph Breaks the Internet, but was cut when Lucasfilm took offense at how the movie depicted him as a "spoiled child".
* From all the main villains of the sequel trilogy, Kylo Ren was so far the only one who interacted with all three protagonists, who were Rey, Finn and Poe Dameron. However, he only interacted with Dameron and Finn in The Force Awakens, yet saw them from afar in The Rise of Skywalker.