— by ELI COLON —
We are just under four months away from the release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” and we have been getting quite a few teasers coming out of the impending issue of Empire Magazine with its cover story being “The Force Awakens,” which will hit newsstands this coming Thursday. The latest tidbit to come out of the story is yet another bit of clarification about Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren, the presumed lead villain of “Episode VII.”
However, co-writer/director J.J. Abrams confirms to Empire that Driver’s character “is not a Sith” Lord a la Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine (among others) before him. Abrams goes onto say, “[Kylo Ren] works under Supreme Leader Snoke, who is a powerful figure on the Dark Side of the Force.”
Snoke is a performance-captured digital character, being portrayed by master mo-cap performer Andy Serkis, and his growly voice was heard in the first “Force Awakens” trailer.
We have yet to get a full gander at Snoke, but anticipation is understandably high to see how he is designed, especially as this news confirms that he’s essentially the new Emperor for Abrams’ film. It has long been rumored that the “Force Awakens” narrative — as written by Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan (“The Empire Strikes Back”) — boasts a subplot where various servants of the Dark Side of the Force are seeking a means to restore the Order of the Sith to its former glory. It’s plausible, however, that Ren is actually carrying out a mission to gain power for a new order that was established by Snoke.
Kylo Ren and Supreme Leader Snoke are in allegiance with The First Order in “The Force Awakens,” as evidenced by images from the film showing Ren flanked by storm troopers. It makes sense for The First Order — which rose in the aftermath of Palpatine and Vader’s defeat in “Return of the Jedi” — to align itself with Dark Force users like the Galactic Empire before it, based on how Abrams likened the aforementioned First Order to the Nazis, if they had reunited after fleeing to Argentina:
That all came out of conversations about what would have happened if the Nazis all went to Argentina but then started working together again? What could be born of that? Could The First Order exist as a group that actually admired The Empire? Could the work of The Empire be seen as unfulfilled? And could Vader be a martyr? Could there be a need to see through what didn’t get done?
Considering the fact that a great deal of movie villains have been modeled after the Nazis, this doesn’t come as a huge surprise, but the way Abrams discusses the First Order underlines his insistence that the new world cannot be seen simply in terms of heroes and villains. He seems to be genuinely looking at these characters in terms of what they believe is right for the galaxy and speaking more of belief rather than simple ideas of sadistic slaying. It’s certainly another reason to get excited for “The Force Awakens,” though it wasn’t like we were in need of a new reason or anything.
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” arrives in theaters on Dec. 18, and while we continue to wait for the film and more “The Force Awakens” info coming out of this week’s Empire issue, the magazine has released online a new shot of Kylo Ren rocking that cross-guard light saber that the character built himself.
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