Star Wars: Domhnall Gleeson Hopes Hux Gets More Comedy in ‘Episode IX’

In The Force Awakens, General Hux proved to be a formidable foe, delivering a powerful speech to the First Order and commanding Supreme Leader Snoke’s respect. Thanks to Kylo Ren’s ruthlessness and Poe Dameron’s mockery, Hux was emasculated in The Last Jedi, leading to some of the film’s more humorous moments. Hux actor Domhnall Gleeson might not know the fate of his character, but he hopes he gets even more hilarious moments in Episode IX.

“I’ve got no idea because I haven’t read a script,” Gleeson shared to Radio Times about what the future held for his character. “I have no idea what direction [Episode IX director J.J. Abrams will] take it in, or even if he’ll use me. So I’m hoping that if I’m in the next one, I’ll get to do [some more comedy].”

The first time audiences saw Hux in The Last Jedi, he was the butt of a joke, which many audiences weren’t expecting, given his formidable presence in the previous film. Additionally, Gleeson hadn’t prepared for the character being mocked when he first read the film’s script.

“I wasn’t expecting [Hux’s comedy] to be the way it went in VIII, at all. It really surprised me,” Gleeson confessed. “And I’d say rather than played for laughs, it was written for laughs. We did it with an eye on the comic elements of it.”

Of the many strengths of The Last Jedi, one of the regularly praised elements was its courageousness to deliver things that audiences hadn’t expected. As Kylo Ren put it himself, writer/director Rian Johnson wasn’t afraid to “Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to.”

“It worked in a completely different way to how it worked in the previous film, and I think that’s really cool,” Gleeson shared of the film, and Hux’s, unexpected turns. “It takes real imagination and confidence to see what happened before – I mean JJ knocked it out of the park with VII – then have the confidence to say, ‘I’m not just going to copy what JJ did, I’m going to develop my own thing.’ I just thought that was fantastic.”

Fans will see what the future holds for Hux when Episode IX lands in theaters on December 20, 2019.

Do you hope to see more humor from Hux in Episode IX? Let us know in the comments below!

[H/T Radio Times]