Star Wars: Episode IX: Adam Driver (barely) teases what’s up with Kylo Ren

Sometimes, in saying little, one can speak volumes, and though Adam Driver may have tried his best not to get fans thinking about Star Wars, it happened.

To the credit of Vulture, its latest interview with Adam Driver doesn’t really talk about Star Wars. After two movies, what can he possibly give away about the path that the final film will take? What can he say that won’t get him in trouble with Lucasfilm, which has kept things a bit more disciplined than its Disney sibling, Marvel?

The answer is two sentences and two further mentions of what it’s like to work on the set. (Apparently, the set is “pure comedy in between takes,” which requires him to be mentally disciplined. This makes plenty of sense, and not just because of the stormtrooper anecdote he mentions.) But those two sentences, given in response to a question about Kylo Ren directly, could have inadvertently revealed a lot.

Here they are. Please feel free to read them in Driver’s voice:

"That’s hard to say because we’re working toward something in particular with [Kylo Ren]. I don’t want to give anything away."

Not to discount Driver here, but there are theories about what Kylo Ren is building up to — yes, even after killing Supreme Leader Snoke, his mentor, and inadvertently killing his uncle, Luke Skywalker. The fact that he specifies “in particular” seems to acknowledge that there is something of a plan already in place. As it’s believed Driver has already filmed here and there, that would only make sense.

The question remains, though. What is that particularity? Are we going to see Rey defeat Kylo Ren once and for all, either by bringing him to the light or putting him down? Is there really a third option for Kylo, opening the door for a more immediate sequel trilogy than the usual time jumps we expect between Star Wars trilogies? The last of these seems the most unlikely, frankly.

That leaves us with death or redemption (or, as previously done with Darth Vader, death and redemption). The rumors seem to be leaning towards death, but we’ve put the theory forward before that Kylo Ren could very well have been working for the Resistance this whole time, which is the third option that Culturess’ Buckie Wells came up with after seeing the same two endings I’ve just noted above.

If that’s the case, it could explain why exactly Driver is so taciturn — moreso than usual — about what’s happening with his character going into the final film of the trilogy. Granted, we’re still a year out from Episode IX, and again, this interview isn’t about Star Wars so much as it’s about Driver himself. But prior to The Last Jedi, about a year before it was in theaters, he was a bit more open about Kylo Ren.

Look, this isn’t to say anything is set in stone. Again, Episode IX won’t grace theater screens until December 2019, and a lot can change between now and then. Solo is a prime example of that. However, when things are getting locked down this early, it behooves fans to sit up and take notice.