Star Wars Is Finally Fixing One of the Sequel Trilogy’s Biggest Kylo Ren Gaps [Exclusive]

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Adam Driver as Kylo Ren in The Rise of Skywalker

Published Oct 6, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT

For as contentious as the Star Wars sequel trilogy is, it did at least provide the franchise with one of its most enduring modern characters in Kylo Ren. A standout performance by Adam Driver helped elevate the villain to greatness by capturing his emotional depth as the son of Han Solo and Leia Organa, who turned to the dark side and became the supreme leader of the First Order. From his final confrontation with his father to his monologues, his wrestling with his actions and whether to return to the light, and ultimately a redemption arc that cost him his life but saved his family legacy, all the pieces were in place to construct a layered antagonist worthy of following up the legendary Darth Vader. Yet, there's so much left untold about the character that has only more recently been addressed in the comics.

Famed Daredevil writer Charles Soule has done much to help Ben Solo reach his full potential by fleshing out his story on the page. In 2019, he penned the limited series The Rise of Kylo Ren from Marvel Comics, depicting his fall to the Dark Side and rebirth as Kylo Ren under Supreme Leader Snoke with the Knights of Ren. It showed how even the Light's greatest hope was not safe from the claws of evil, slowly and insidiously pushing him down the wrong path. Before that, The Legacy of Vader forced the Skywalkers to wrestle with his actions and legacy as a grandson of Anakin. Most recently, though, Soule has returned to the time between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker with The Fall of Kylo Ren, showing how the villain forged his own path of tyranny. In jumping around the Star Wars sequel timeline, he's gotten a chance from Marvel and Lucasfilm to answer the burning questions that ate at him after seeing the films himself.

In an interview with Collider's Maggie Lovitt at FanX Salt Lake City over the weekend, Soule described how his process in tackling Star Wars' staple characters often revolves around the questions he wants to see answered about them as a fan. "Whenever I get one of these chances to expand the story of a really well-known character in Star Wars — right now, we're talking about Kylo Ren, but I've also gotten to do it with Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker, all kinds of big characters in the mythos, which is a blast. I feel very honored to be able to do it," he said. "Usually, I start with trying to figure out if there's actually a story to tell, and for me, that begins with the questions that the films and maybe TV shows don't answer." For The Fall of Kylo Ren, those questions involved the character's mindset after burning down many of the connections to his old life and reflecting on everything he's lost with his despicable acts.

"With Kylo Ren, in particular, for me, it was a really interesting set of stories to be told based around the moments right after Episode VIII, when he becomes the supreme leader of the First Order, but he's kind of lost everything. He's killed his dad, he's met Rey, he's had this confrontation with Luke Skywalker. All these things have happened in a very short period of time, because Episodes VII and VIII take place over, I don't know, a week or two. So all of these life-changing things for this young man, to me, it felt like there was a ton of rich story ground to cover."

Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Star Wars Faction Do You Belong To? Rebels · Empire · Mandalorians · Crimson Dawn

Eight honest questions about how you actually are: how you feel about rules, where your loyalty goes first, what you do when somebody criticises you in front of other people. Answer them and we will tell you whose side you would really have ended up on. Four factions are recruiting: the believers, the organisation, the ones with a code, and the ones with a price.

✊Rebel Alliance(Andor)

🛰️The Empire(Original Trilogy)

🪖Mandalorians(The Mandalorian)

🌅Crimson Dawn(Solo)

PICK YOUR SIDE →

How do you feel about rules at work? This one sorts people faster than anything else.

AI break the ones that are clearly wrong. BThey exist for a reason and I follow them. CI follow my own, which are stricter. DRules are a starting position for a negotiation.

NEXT QUESTION →

What is your relationship with money? Nobody answers this the way they think they will.

AI get by, and that is genuinely fine. BA steady salary and a clear ladder. CI take exactly what the work is worth. DNever enough, and I know how to get more.

NEXT QUESTION →

What makes you respect somebody? Whatever you pick, you apply it to yourself too.

AThat they speak up when it costs them. BThat they are very good at their job. CThat they keep their word without exception. DThat they deliver, whatever it takes.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you behave under real pressure? Your friends would probably answer this for you.

ALoud and improvised, but I get there. BCalmly, and strictly by the book. CQuietly, and one step at a time. DColdly, which people find slightly unnerving.

NEXT QUESTION →

Where does your loyalty go first? Everybody has an order, even if they never say it out loud.

ATo the thing I believe in. BTo the organisation that took me on. CTo the people I grew up with. DTo whoever I currently have a deal with.

NEXT QUESTION →

Somebody criticises you in front of other people. What happens? Be honest about the first thing you feel.

AI argue back, right there and then. BI take it, then raise it through the proper channel. CI say nothing at all, and I remember it. DI smile, and make them regret it later.

NEXT QUESTION →

What does a good life look like in ten years? Pick the one you would actually be happy with.

ASomething I helped change, still standing. BA title, a team and a decent office. CA home, a family and my people safe. DOwning the thing I used to work for.

NEXT QUESTION →

What do you want more than anything else? Eight questions in, this is the one that picks your side.

ATo be on the right side of it. BOrder, and a clear place inside it. CTo belong somewhere that would never abandon me. DPower, and nobody above me.

REVEAL MY FACTION →

The Transmission Is Decoded Your Faction Is…

Four sides, four completely different answers to the same question about how a galaxy should work. Here is where you would have signed up, what it would ask of you, and what it would give you back.

Rebel Alliance

You belong with the side that has almost nothing and keeps going anyway. The Rebellion is not a glamorous posting, and anybody who tells you otherwise has not seen what it actually costs the people inside it.

You are wired to notice when something is wrong and to say so, which makes you useful here and awkward almost everywhere else.
Andor is the best thing Star Wars has made in years precisely because it shows the unglamorous half, which is the meetings, the paperwork and the people who never get a medal.
Your kind of courage is the ordinary kind, done repeatedly, by somebody who is fully aware of the odds.
The Alliance wins because enough people decided separately that they were finished being quiet about it.

The Galactic Empire

You belong to the machine, and the uncomfortable truth is that the machine mostly runs on people who are competent, orderly and convinced they are doing their job properly. Very few of them think of themselves as villains.

You want structure, clear expectations and a way to measure whether you are doing well, none of which the other three factions can offer you.
The Empire is frightening because of how ordinary it is on the inside, which is the single smartest thing Star Wars has ever done with it.
Your risk is the quiet one, which is looking at something wrong and deciding it is somebody else's department.
You would be genuinely good at this, and that is exactly the part worth thinking about.

The Mandalorians

You belong to the people who lost their planet and kept their code anyway. Mandalorian culture is not a nationality so much as a promise, and anybody who makes that promise and keeps it is one of them.

You are loyal to people rather than to institutions, which is why an organisation chart has never once told you who you actually owe.
A code only counts when it costs you something, and you are the sort of person who would pay rather than bend it.
Mandalorians spend the whole saga arguing about what being one even means, and that argument is far more interesting than the armour.
The Mandalorian and Grogu took the creed to cinemas over Memorial Day 2026, the first Star Wars film in seven years.

Crimson Dawn

You belong to the syndicate, where nobody wastes your time pretending the galaxy runs on ideals. Crimson Dawn deals in leverage, and it is the only faction on this list that would tell you so to your face.

You read a room for who owes what, and you are usually right, which is a talent that makes people slightly wary of you.
Qi'ra is the most interesting thing to come out of Solo, because she is the one character who learned the actual lesson about power.
You would rather be the person setting the terms than the person being told what the terms are.
The catch is simple enough. In a syndicate, everybody is leverage, including you, and the smart ones never forget that part.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

'The Rise of Kylo Ren' Built on the Sequel Trilogy With Lucasfilm's Guidance

Kylo Ren stands in front of the Knights of Ren in a dark, rain-soaked landscape

As a writer of Star Wars canon, everything Soule does goes through Lucasfilm and Marvel. However, particularly with The Rise of Kylo Ren, he found all parties receptive to his ideas because of how they leaned on everything implied in the sequels. He saw opportunities for interesting storytelling left on the table that he was more than happy to pick up and run with as soon as he got the green light and a bit of guidance. Not only that, but he aimed to fill gaps that were present in the trilogy, tying together the threads he wanted to see most. The result was a rousing success that, like Driver's performance, added more nuance to Ben Solo by showing his gradual descent into darkness and, in turn, making the character of Kylo Ren more interesting in retrospect.

"And before that, I did The Rise of Kylo Ren, which was a story of how he changed initially from Ben Solo into taking up the mantle of Kylo Ren and meeting the Knights of Ren and all that stuff. So, to me, Kylo Ren was always a character that the movies... they implied a lot of interesting things, but they didn't outright state them. So, to me, as a storyteller, it was like, 'Wow, there's a lot of questions I can answer here.' So then, I just brought those questions to Lucasfilm, and I worked with the executives and, obviously, editors at Marvel and Lucasfilm, the story group of wonderful people whose job is to kind of guide people who are writing in the current canon. And they were very receptive and very enthusiastic, and I think the work is great."

Soule is only just getting started with his Kylo Ren trilogy capper. Issue #3 of 5 of The Fall of Kylo Ren is due out on October 21 and will pick up with the Supreme Leader forcibly bringing the Knights of Ren under his command. It could be just in time, too, with his flagship facing a dire threat and Generals Hux and Pryde scheming in the background. The shadowy organization's secrets may be laid bare as their connection to a dark artifact and an undying, ever-improving droid is interrogated. Soule continues to work with artist Will Sliney on the comic, which will aim to wrap up this year.

Stay tuned here at Collider for more on The Fall of Kylo Ren and everything under the Marvel Comics umbrella releasing this year. You can watch Lovitt's full conversation with Soule below. Explore more books and comics with a free trial of Audible.