Star Wars Episode IX: A dark side update for Adam Driver

As Star Wars Episode IX filming continues, fans are speculating that Kylo Ren still has a part to play, based on Adam Driver’s presence (or lack thereof).

With Star Wars Episode IX passing on the Super Bowl despite fans’ hopes to the contrary, can we really blame fans for digging up every single scrap of information that they can possibly get their hands on? No, we can’t, especially when that information could end up being vital to our predictions of what’ll actually happen in the movie.

Lately, the community over at r/StarWarsLeaks has been paying very close attention to Adam Driver. Thanks to his Oscar nomination for BlacKkKlansman, there’s a lot of press that he should be doing in Los Angeles. However, he hasn’t been there this past weekend and through today. First, he skipped the Directors’ Guild of America Awards on Friday. Then, a fan account noticed that he missed today’s Oscars event, a luncheon:

The fans over on Reddit came to one conclusion: If he’s skipping these high-profile events, then he’s working on Star Wars. So, what’s so important on Star Wars? (Other than the fact that it’s going to be Disney’s crown jewel this year, aside from Avengers: Endgame and maybe Captain Marvel?)

Keep in mind that Driver has said previously that Kylo Ren has always had a full storyline when it comes to the movies. Indeed, The Last Jedi seems like it’s as much Rey’s movie as it is his.

We’ve opined before on what we would and wouldn’t like to see from him come Episode IX. Yet as fans have also commented, it seems like Driver will be a big part of things right until the film wraps its principal photography, and this comment by DH80 could clue us in as to what may be there:

"In order to keep the biggest surprises secret JJ [Abrams] and company reduce the crew size to very small numbers on closed sets and film those at the end."

Here’s some corroborating evidence that has to do with the appearance of Ahch-To in The Force Awakens, which involved JJ Abrams shooting towards the end of production. So, let’s take this as our starting point. If Driver is involved in the kinds of scenes that are some of the last to be shot, then there’s going to be something big with Kylo Ren. This is almost a given, considering the journey he and Rey go on in The Last Jedi, but what options are there?

I’ve stated them before, but with this new information, I’m leaning towards something more shocking rather than expected. The expected response would be death and redemption, like Kylo Ren’s grandfather before him. The shocking would be a twist. Whether that’s his living and coming back to the light, dying in the darkness, or something we can’t even predict at this point, it seems that Abrams and crew are treating this with utmost secrecy.

And, finally, one last point: Driver’s still sporting that long Kylo-Ren-style hair as of the end of January, as you can see above. It’s not full-on Kit Harington on Game of Thrones levels of conspiracy, but it might just be up there.

What do you want to see for Kylo Ren in Episode IX?