EW has been running a lot of coverage of ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens‘ as of late, with numerous enlightening interviews with the cast and crew of the film, including director J.J. Abrams. Abrams has been surprisingly open about certain topics regarding the film, including the inclusion of a new armored space station set to be the new Death Star of the film:
“It is very much — and it’s acknowledged as such in the movie — apparently another Death Star…But what it’s capable of, how it works, and what the threat is, is far greater than what the Death Star could have done. Starkiller Base is another step forward, technologically speaking, in terms of power.”
EW also spoke to star Domhnall Gleeson (who plays the villainous General Hux) about his character, and his defining traits, as well as what led him to the First Order in the first place:
“There’s an air of superiority, and being better than those people around you. He’s pretty ruthless. A strong disciplinarian would be a mild way of putting it… “You don’t get that high up in your life that quickly unless you’re pretty ruthless. You have to put a few people down on the way to get there… It’s in the title: order. It’s a desire to lump everything in its place and just have power. The desire for power is hugely motivating for a lot of people and normally the people who want all the power are not the ones who should have it…The fear of individuality [drives him]. People who are messed up themselves often want to squash the individuality out of other people because they’re afraid of what it means…He’s kind of opposite Kylo Ren. They have their own relationship, which is individual and unusual. One of them is strong in different ways than the other. They’re both vying for power.”
Which does seem to make General Hux a more three-dimensional character than I would have originally thought (which is foolish of me as Abrams has excelled in the past at making his characters deeper than they usually are in these types of situations). Here’s to hoping the dynamics between the villains is as interesting as Gleeson seems to think it will be, and that it all works well together to make for some compelling space drama when ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens” hits theaters on December 17th.
