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J.J. Abrams: Kylo Ren Almost Left The Dark Side During Famous Han Solo Scene In ‘The Force Awakens’

By Gregory Wakeman
Published on: 13:47 PST, Oct 19, 2016

J.J. Abrams has opened up about one of the most famous scenes, not just of the last 12 months, but in the history of cinema, which took place in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and involved Han Solo and Adam Driver’s Kylo Ren. The director has revealed Kylo Ren’s thought process that went into the pivotal scene, admitting that it was a reaction to him being convinced to leave the dark side.

Rather obviously, the following article is going to cover one of the most important scenes in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and it contains huge SPOILERS for the blockbuster. If you’ve not seen the seventh installment to the Star Wars franchise and don’t want it to be ruined for you then you probably shouldn’t read ahead.

J.J. Abrams opened up about the scene, which saw Kylo Ren, who was born Ben Solo, the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, kill his own father, during the director’s commentary for Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ 3D Collector’s Edition, which will be released next month in the U.S. and Canada.

USA Today got ahold of the audio from the DVD, during which Abrams admitted that as the father and son met on the bridge during The Force Awakens, Han Solo was actually convincing Kylo Ren to walk away from the dark side of the Force. But, at the defining point of the scene, which saw Kylo Ren swing his lightsaber into the chest of his father, whose corpse then collapsed down into the abyss, he realized he’d gone too far, which is why he killed him.

Abrams explained, “People have asked me if I think that Kylo Ren was just playing with him the whole time, if he meant to kill him from the beginning. And the truth is, I think Kylo Ren, in this moment, is actually being convinced to walk away from this. Snoke is, as Han says, using him, and I think that somewhere Ben knows this. But I think that he can’t accept it. Deep down, he has gone too far.”

During the conception and development of the scene, J.J. Abrams admitted that he received plenty of help from Jon Kasdan, who is the son of Lawrence Kasdan, the man who wrote several Star Wars films in the past. Between them, they made sure that there was a lot of “raw emotion and uncertainty” in the scene.

Abrams also joked about the similarities between this scene in The Force Awakens and the encounter between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back, which concluded with the revelation that Darth was actually the father of Luke. Abrams remarked, “Obviously any time two characters in Star Wars go out on an incredibly thin bridge 10 miles above the ground with no railings, it’s not going to end well with one of them.”

The scene depicting the death of Han Solo was arguably the most iconic of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which when it was released around Christmas, 2015, was met with hugely positive reviews, resulting in it achieving a score of 92 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. It also did rather well at the box office, too, going on to gross $2.068 billion and becoming the third highest-grossing film of all time.

But despite this triumph, J.J. Abrams isn’t returning for Star Wars Episode 8, as he’s decided that he wants to work on original material. Abrams has instead been replaced by Rian Johnson, who has written and directed the follow-up that will build upon The Force Awakens and show us if Kylo Ren is actually feeling guilty about the death of Han Solo. We’ll find out when Star Wars: Episode 8 is released on December 15, 2017.

[Featured Image by Lucasfilm]

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