Adam Driver Reveals the Importance of the Title of Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was finally released last month and concluded the Skywalker Saga that began back in 1977. Many actors from the original trilogy returned, but there’s also a group of new stars who became important staples within the franchise. Adam Driver plays Kylo Ren/Ben Solo in the sequel movies, and he’s currently a big contender this awards season for his role opposite Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story. The actor has been conducting lots of interviews about both films, but in a recent chat with Xilla Valentine, Driver took it back to 2015 to discuss the importance of the title of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

“As far as overall journey, in my first meetings with J.J. [Abrams] he kind of set this arc of this character that I really related to. And then for six years you kind of have in the back of your mind where that character starts in the last movie. Nobody knew how it ended, even when we started it no one knew how it ended. But the title of the first one being The Force Awakens, is something that I really took to heart for him. It’s not only The Force that awakens for the light, but it’s the dark. And again, J.J. gave me this thing to think about for what turned out to be a six year journey of how he evolves. Which hopefully come to fruition in a way in this movie,” Adam explained.

During the interview, Driver also admitted that his Star Wars character would be a lousy father to The Mandalorian‘s Baby Yoda.

“Oh my God. What would he do with it?,” Driver began. “He’s let him watch Stinky and Dirty probably. That show on Amazon. I mean I need to pitch Amazon Prime. He’d probably put him in front of the TV so he could do what he needed to do. He’d be a negligent caretaker.”

You can watch the full interview in the video above or click here.

Currently, The Rise of Skywalker is up on Rotten Tomatoes with the second-worst critics score for a live-action Star Wars movie, earning a surprising 53%. However, the film is fairing better with moviegoers and currently has an 86% audience score. ComicBook.com’s own Patrick Cavanaugh called the movie “a mixed bag of delights and frustrations that largely succeeds” and gave it a 4 out of 5 rating.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is now playing in theaters everywhere.