Kylo Ren Is “Not Vader Yet” According To Star Wars: The Last Jedi Director

Kylo Ren may be intent on following in his grandfather’s footsteps, but he’s not quite the equal of Darth Vader just yet.

At the end of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the mysterious Supreme Leader Snoke of the First Order called the leader of the Knights of Ren back to complete his training in the dark side of the Force.

However, Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson says that Kylo Ren’s journey is hardly complete when the next chapter of the Skywalker saga takes place.

“Writing Kylo Ren is just so much fun,” Johnson tells Empire. “Star Wars boils down to the transition from adolescence into adulthood. That’s the heart of these films and Rey is most obviously the one that hangs on. But it’s also Kylo. In the originals you project entirely onto Luke, while Vader is the scary other — he’s the minotaur. The fascinating thing about Kylo and Rey is that they’re two sides of something. We can all relate to Kylo: to that anger of being in the turmoil of adolescence and figuring out who he’s going to be as a man; dealing with anger and wanting to separate from his family. He’s not Vader — at least, he’s not Vader yet — and that’s something I really wanted to get into.”

The famous themes of duality in the Star Wars saga seem to be expanding even further with the linked, mirror coming-of-age tales of Kylo Ren and Rey. The themes even extend to the lovable BB-8, who will have his own mirror image introduced in the evil First Order droid BB-9e in The Last Jedi.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi currently has a 4.06 out of 5 ComicBook.com User Anticipation rating, making it the most anticipated upcoming movie not based on a comic book among ComicBook.com users and the sixth most anticipated overall. Let us know how much you’re looking forward to Star Wars: The Last Jedi by giving the film your own personal ComicBook.com User Anticipation Rating below.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi opens in theaters on Dec. 15, 2017.