The perfect Kylo Ren replacement got the ending Adam Driver’s Ben Solo deserved in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. From his very first scene in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Kylo Ren became one of the Disney era’s most compelling characters. Though strong with the Force and determined to emulate his grandfather, Darth Vader, Kylo was conflicted, fearful of his lingering affection for his parents, confused by his connection with Rey, and driven by his need to prove himself to the First Order and Supreme Leader Snoke.
Tragically, despite finding his way back to the light in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and helping Rey defeat the resurrected Emperor Palpatine once and for all, the real Ben Solo never had a chance to find peace. Instead, he sacrificed his life to bring Rey back from the dead, becoming one with the Force like his mother and uncle before him. Star Wars has an unfortunate habit of framing sacrificial death as the one true way to be a hero and find redemption.
Is it, though? Wouldn’t it be more interesting to see someone accept and actually experience the weight and responsibility of what they’ve done, while trying to be better?
For a character like Ben, his turning to the light and helping Rey would surely mean even more if he were made to face the consequences of his actions. It’s no wonder word spread like wildfire when Driver revealed he and iconic director Steven Soderbergh had pitched a post-Rise of Skywalker Hunt for Ben Solo movie, only for it to be rejected by Disney’s execs. That would have been the perfect opportunity to give Ben Solo the ending the character had earned.
Instead, another recent Star Wars project has shown audiences what might have been had Ben Solo been allowed to live. Star Wars: Visions Presents — The Ninth Jedi, the franchise’s first full-length anime series, introduces the masked, conquering, Imperial-esque General known as Nawaam, a former Jedi learner who believes the only way to find peace in the galaxy is to achieve a state of total emotional “nothingness.”
Ben Solo Deserved The Same Second Chance As The Ninth Jedi’s Nawaam
While it’s important to note that The Ninth Jedi isn’t strictly considered canon, the parallels between Kylo Ren/Ben Solo and Nawaam are staggering. Much like Ben, Nawaam witnessed one of his Jedi teachers “turn” on a fellow Jedi, forever twisting his understanding of the light side and the dark, good and evil. Nawaam, like Kylo, also prefers to live as a shell of his former self, until a young female Jedi, a Force prodigy known as Lah Kara, challenges his beliefs and forces his true feelings to the surface.
Though Nawaam never sacrifices himself as Ben does, he comes to understand that achieving “nothingness” is neither peaceful nor true strength, and that sooner or later, everyone has to make a choice. “In the end, it turns out his heart wasn’t empty after all,” Kara’s father, the Jedi Lah Zhima, says about Nawaam. Kylo Ren’s heart was never filled with pure darkness, either. Unlike Ben, however, Nawaam gets to live. Kara purposefully spares his life.
The final moments of The Ninth Jedi show Lah Zhima visiting Nawaam in prison — they haven’t totally forgiven him for the fatal atrocities he was involved in, of course — and Zhima hands him his lightsaber. In The Ninth Jedi‘s unique version of the Star Wars galaxy, lightsabers change color near-instantaneously based on what’s in the wielder’s heart. Nawaam started his story in The Ninth Jedi with a Jedi-blue lightsaber; when he achieved that so-called “nothingness,” his saber turned silver, and when he finally allowed himself to feel again, with anger and fear surging through him, it turned red.
In an Inception-like twist, The Ninth Jedi never shows what color Nawaam’s lightsaber is when he turns it on for the final time, but Zhima giving him the lightsaber represents a chance for Nawaam to forge his own path, guided by what’s in his heart. Both these villains’ arcs are about finding their own identity. Ben Solo’s family background overshadowed his individuality at every turn. He was a Skywalker, an Organa, a Solo, and Vader’s grandson. He was the greatest hope of the Jedi and Palpatine’s perfect puppet.
Ben Solo deserved the same chance not only to atone for his many sins, but also to discover who he might have been as a man and as a Force-wielder without the added pressure of his family’s legacy. Rey would have given him that freedom. Given her connection to Palpatine, she would have understood his need to chart his own course instead. Sadly, Ben Solo will never get that chance, nor the opportunity to find his own way in the Star Wars galaxy.
Star Wars: Visions Presents — The Ninth Jedi is available to stream now, exclusively on Disney+.
- Release Date
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2026 – 2026-00-00
- Network
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Hulu, Disney+
- Directors
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Shunsuke Tada, Kenichi Matsuzawa, Kazuma Ogasawara
- Writers
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Mitsuyasu Sakai, Daisuke Ohigashi, Yumiko Yoshizawa
Cast
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Chinatsu Akasaki
Lah Kara (voice)
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Hiromu Mineta
Ethan (voice)
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