These aren’t the droids parents you’re looking for.
Kylo Ren’s backstory is one of the many questions left unanswered by 2019′s “The Rise of Skywalker,” the final installment in the main nine-part “Star Wars” saga. In 2017′s “The Last Jedi,” we’re led to believe that Ben Solo turned into the equally evil and emo Kylo Ren after waking up to find Luke Skywalker nearly killing him. It’s an abrupt, though passable, origin story. But apparently there’s more to it — in Adam Driver’s mind anyway.
“The Magicians” author Lev Grossman did a preview of “The Rise of Skywalker” for Vanity Fair in 2019, and during a recent interview with Inverse, he revealed Driver had more detailed thoughts about how Ben Solo became Kylo Ren.
Grossman said he wished “The Rise of Skywalker” included more about Kylo’s upbringing, adding, “When I interviewed Adam Driver, he had a lot of really interesting thoughts about Ben Solo’s childhood, but then it wasn’t really that much of it in the movie, so I think we just have to assume that his childhood sucked, and that’s why he [turned to] the dark side.”
The author also revealed that Driver did not think the Force was with Han Solo and Leia Organa’s parenting skills.
“This is actually a thing Adam Driver said. He said he thought 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 that a young and tender Kylo Ren really needed,” Grossman said.
(Wow, Kylo’s so deep into the dark side he’s got extra shade to throw around.)
Ultimately, Ben Solo does overcome the bad parenting, Skywalker’s assassination attempt and any unseen shenanigans from Snoke to turn back to the light, so maybe Han and Leia’s Force Ghosts shouldn’t be too hard on themselves. Sure, they helped create a “Star Wars” supervillain, but at least he had the love and respect of his co-workers. OK, Boomers?
After all, when it comes to flighty smuggler Han Solo, were the odds ever in favor of him being a good dad?