Star Wars: New Image and Details Emerge About General Hux in ‘The Last Jedi’

In The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren represented the villainous face of the Sith, whereas General Hux represented the calculated military terror of the First Order. When speaking with Empire, Hux actor Domhnall Gleeson teases that his character’s desperation could lead him to making disastrous decisions.

“Because of what happened in the first film, he’s been pushed to a place where his position is in real jeopardy, and people make really bad decisions when they get desperate,” Gleeson confessed. “Hux and Kylo Ren are vying for power and for Snoke’s attention. They’re both contenders for the throne and Hux is hoping Ren explodes, so that he can take up the mantle. He knows it will be a battle otherwise, one he may very well lose.”

The relationship between Kylo and Hux was complicated, as they both answered to Supreme Leader Snoke, with Hux seemingly serving as the strategic leader and Kylo being the vicious enforcer. Earlier this year, Gleeson revealed that after reading the script for the new film, he was so impacted that he immediately needed to discuss what he read with The Last Jedi writer/director Rian Johnson.

“When I read it I needed to talk to him, and I think that’s always a good sign,” Gleeson told Collider. “I was like, ‘Wow there’s some stuff there which is kind of—not scary but different to what I expected,’ and that’s a really, really nice thing. I think that’s a really positive thing, I think that’s important for those films that we don’t repeat ourselves.”

Based on descriptions of these conversations, Johnson wasn’t at all afraid to take the sequel in a shocking direction.

“So I just wanted to talk to him, and when I talked to him he was so clear and so confident, not in a brash way but he knew the film he wanted to make, and it was a really lovely thing,” Gleeson confessed. “Just [to] sit down with a filmmaker you really enjoy… but to see him, just the confidence of it and his excitement about what it could be and everything, it was really pleasing to see. Very calming. And I got really excited about being in it, and it was a really very, very cool experience working with him. I would love to work with him again, I really enjoyed it.”

We’ll learn more of the leader of the First Order’s journey when The Last Jedi hits theaters on December 15.

[H/T Empire]