Star Wars: Domhnall Gleeson Wishes Hux Lived Longer in The Rise of Skywalker

Some of the more unexpected moments in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker were provided by Domhnall Gleeson‘s General Hux, as his change of heart in allowing Poe, Finn, and Chewbacca to escape the First Order stunned the audience, while his death just a few scenes later saw audiences somewhat sympathize with the villain, with Gleeson himself recently admitting that he also had conflicted reactions to his character’s fate. While he had initially hoped to spend more time exploring a Hux that played for both sides, he ultimately understood why director J.J. Abrams made the decisions that he did, based on audience reactions to his role.

“It would’ve been nice to stick around a little bit longer, for sure,” Gleeson shared with IndieWire. “It would’ve been nice to see the spy thing play out a little bit, but J.J. knows what he’s doing, and I heard a kind of gasp in the cinema when it happened, so I guess he was right.”

In his first two Star Wars films, Gleeson largely served as just another cog in the First Order machine, as he butted heads with Kylo Ren but ultimately followed the bidding of anyone deemed the Supreme Leader, with Kylo taking on that mantle at the end of Star Wars: The Last Jedi and potentially setting up an all-new dynamic for the character. Hux ultimately had to fall in line with another commanding officer, this time in Richard E. Grant’s General Pryde, who became the one to execute Hux.

“I’ve been a fan of Richard’s work for a very, very, very long time. So if you’re bowing out to anybody, there are a lot of worse people to bow out to,” the actor admitted.

The film went on to earn more than a billion dollars worldwide, but sits at only 52% positive reviews from critics on aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. Reactions to the film have been mixed, to say the least, due in large part to it having to pay off not only the sequel trilogy, but the entire Skywalker Saga. Gleeson himself notes pleasing everyone would have been a daunting task, as time wouldn’t allow the film to deliver audiences everything they wanted.

“The film is what the film needed to be, I think,” Gleeson noted. “There’s always stuff that you would like to see more of, but you can’t have a 17-hour film, I’ve been told. Apparently that’s not allowed, so I was happy with what was there.”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is available now on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD.

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