J.J. Abrams Reveals News About 'Star Wars' Villain Kylo Ren

J.J. Abrams Reveals News About ‘Star Wars’ Villain Kylo Ren

Image via Disney/LucasFilm/Entertainment Weekly

We’ve got good news and bad news for Star Wars fans.

The bad news is, there won’t be any new footage or pictures at this weekend’s D23 convention, even though it’s specifically designed to show off Disney’s upcoming slate.

The good news is, Entertainment Weekly just published a ton of genuinely encouraging stuff about Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the upcoming film from J.J. Abrams, including the first actual information about the film’s new villain, Kylo Ren.

Kylo Ren was first spotted in the first Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser, walking through the woods and wielding a red lightsaber that would probably do him more harm than god. Since then we have learned little about the character, other than that he’s being played by Adam Driver (Girls).

Related: What If ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ Sucks?

EW informs us that Kylo Ren is allied with the First Order, the remnants of the Empire that was seemingly destroyed at the end of The Return of the Jedi. And his Darth Vader-esque appearance is an intentional, knowing homage from Kylo Ren himself.

“The movie explains the origins of the mask and where it’s from, but the design was meant to be a nod to the Vader mask,“ says J.J. Abrams. “[Ren] is well aware of what’s come before, and that’s very much a part of the story of the film.”

Also, that whole “Kylo Ren” thing? It’s not his real name…

“He is a character who came to the name Kylo Ren when he joined a group called the Knights of Ren,“ Abrams adds, without going into any detail about what his real name might be, or why that would be worth keeping a secret from anybody. (Is he a Skywalker? Is he a Palpatine? Is he a Mothma?)

For more information on Kylo Ren, including why his lightsaber is so janky, head on over to Entertainment Weekly.

William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.