Overview
Kylo Ren is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise. He first appeared as the main antagonist of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), in which he is portrayed by Adam Driver. Driver reprised his role in the sequel films Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019), with the character also appearing in Star Wars Resistance (2018–2020), The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special (2020) and Lego Star Wars: Terrifying Tales (2021).
Kylo Ren is the chosen name of Ben Solo, the son of original Star Wars trilogy characters Han Solo and Princess Leia Organa. Though initially trained as a Jedi by his uncle Luke Skywalker, Ben was seduced to the dark side of the Force by Supreme Leader Snoke, and aspires to be as powerful as his grandfather, the Sith Lord Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker. Throughout the sequel trilogy, Kylo Ren serves as the master of the Knights of Ren, a warlord of the First Order, and both an adversary of and romantic interest for Rey. After he kills Snoke and usurps his position as Supreme Leader, Ren discovers that he shares a connection with Rey called a 'Force dyad' and is eventually redeemed like his grandfather when he sacrifices himself to help Rey defeat the revived Emperor Palpatine.
In addition to appearing in the films and television series, Kylo Ren has also appeared in related media and merchandising. Driver's performance has received acclaim from critics and fans. For his performance in The Force Awakens, Driver won the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor, making him the first Star Wars actor since Alec Guinness to win the award. Driver received a second nomination in the same category for his performance in The Rise of Skywalker.
Concept and creation
Abrams requested that the character's mask be designed to be memorable to a child. As late as March 2014, the film's main antagonist was only known to the production team as "Jedi Killer", and had gone through numerous unapproved design attempts, one of which was reused for Captain Phasma. The same month, Glyn Dillon's design for the character's costume was finally approved. According to Abrams, "the design was meant to be a nod to the Vader mask," and concept designer Doug Chiang says that the character "takes on [the] persona of [Vader] to haunt Luke." According to The Force Awakens costume designer Michael Kaplan,
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