New concept art of Kylo Ren — the villain from the “Star Wars” sequel trilogy — revealed the original design for the character, and it was a lot more grim than what we ended up seeing on screen.
What happened
Star Wars Facts — a verified “Star Wars” Twitter account that shares facts and notes about the franchise — tweeted a recent photo of Kylo Ren’s original concept art.
- The photo shows Kylo Ren with a cyborg arm. And he apparently had a nickname of “The Grave Robber.”
- “Early on, he had a cyborg arm and was known as ‘The Grave Robber’ because he was seen holding Darth Vader’s remains (mostly his helmet),” the account tweeted.
Kylo Ren concept art for ‘The Force Awakens’
Early on, he had a cyborg arm and was known as ‘The Grave Robber’ because he was seen holding Darth Vader’s remains (mostly his helmet) pic.twitter.com/Z5TU1TF40W
— Star Wars Facts (@SWTweets) February 8, 2021
Kylo Ren original mask
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen early concept art for Kylo Ren, as I wrote about for the Deseret News. The official “Star Wars” Instagram account shared five different photos of the original designs for Kylo Ren’s mask for “The Rise of Skywalker.” All five concepts were considered for Episode IX, which included Kylo Ren getting his mask back after destroying it “The Last Jedi.”
Back in August 2019, Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil Szostak shared a picture of the original concept art for Kylo Ren for “The Force Awakens” that showed a character with pale skin, dead eyes and a heavy helmet and cloak, as I explained for the Deseret News.
- The character’s design was later used for the Fifth Brother in “Star Wars Rebels.” Fifth Brother was a humanoid who worked with Darth Vader to hunt down the Rebellion in the early days of the Empire, as I wrote for the Deseret News.
