Follow us on Google News
Get the latest updates directly in your Google News feed
However, things weren’t so easy for Driver since he was also a bit hesitant before joining the franchise. With a plethora of actors wanting to portray the role, Driver took some time to consider the decision.
Adam Driver Was Hesitant For The Role of Kylo Ren
Call it nervousness or cold feet, butAdam Driverwas not prepared to take on such a big role (during the initial days). When he was approached for the role, Driver felt a sense of joining something that is bigger than himself, and thus, was a lot of responsibility.
It was quite a few years back when a rumor was spread on the internet that Joaquin Phoenix and Adam Driver were in a race to portray the role of Lex Luthor in Zack Snyder’s 2016 filmBatman V Superman: Dawn of Justice.
During that same time, Driver was also in talks for portraying the role of Kylo Ren in the 2015 filmStar Wars: The Force Awakens.Well, fans were wondering whether the Zack Snyder film was the reason for Driver’s hesitation in joining the film.
“I stopped reading Spider-Man”: Even Adam Driver Hated Marvel Comics After Spider-Man Made a Deal With the Devil in One More Day
However, in an interview withGQ, the actor later revealed that it wasn’t the case at all. Driver stated that he didn’t want to accidentally join a franchise that sacrificed their characters for glamour and glory.
I’m leery of big movies — a lot of them sacrifice character for spectacle. When they’re bad, it pisses me off — you can just tell it’s made by a bunch of executives somewhere.
The actor further continued that it was the complexity of Kylo Ren that eventually won him over.
I remember the initial conversations about having things ‘skinned,’ peeling away layers to evolve into other people, and the person Kylo’s pretending to be on the outside is not who he is.
He’s a vulnerable kid who doesn’t know where to put his energy, but when he puts his mask on, suddenly, he’s playing a role. JJ [Abrams] had that idea initially and I think Rian [Johnson] took it to the next level.
Well, it was a happy realization for Adam Driver since director J.J. Abrams was already considering other actors for the role. The original character of Kylo Ren was going to be a bit older and naturally, Abrams was looking to cast a veteran actor for the role.
“That’s great, except nobody can move”: Francis Ford Coppola Deliberately Made Adam Driver Suffer Because of His Hate for Digital Effects
It was revealed that Abrams was even considering one iconic Marvel actor who had portrayed the role of a superb antagonist just a year beforeStar Wars: The Force Awakens!
Michael Fassbender Could Have Replaced Adam Driver!
Veteran director J.J. Abrams had the idea that the character of Kylo Ren could be depicted as a bit older. Being on the path to the dark side, Abrams may have felt the need to showcase that Ren wasn’t just some spoiled kid shaking hands with the devil, but instead, an adult who had seen enough trauma.
Naturally, the director was looking at veteran actors who could nail the role. During the early development of the script ofThe Force Awakens,Ren was referred to as the “Jedi Killer” and Abrams approached veteran actorMichael Fassbenderfor the opportunity.
“Nobody wanted it”: True Detective Creator Wrote a Michael Fassbender ‘Magnificent Seven’ Show That Amazon Had to Come and Save
Fassbender had portrayed the role of Magneto in the 2014 filmX-Men: Days of Future Pastand he became one of the top choices for J. J. Abrams. Although Fassbender would have been a good choice for the role, the rest, as we know, is history.
Adam Driver was selected for the iconic role and he nailed that performance down to the very core. The 2015 film received a rating of 7.8/10 on IMDB and a whopping 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Star Wars: The Force Awakensis available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.
Visarg Acharya
Senior Writer
Articles Published :3262
Visarg Acharya is a Senior Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on movies, with over 3000 articles published. He has been an entertainment journalist for the past three years and a copywriter at a corporation. Visarg usually covers news and theories on the MCU and the DCU, with an emphasis on Avengers and Superman; Game of Thrones, and more.A Tarantino fan, Visarg, spends his time critiquing various directors’ filmographies and watching them with curiosity. Medieval fantasy like The Lord of the Rings or sci-fi movies like Interstellar, watching the latest horror movies, and listening to Hans Zimmer become his comfort zone. When idle, he can be found reading fantasy novels with a terrible cup of coffee in hand.
