30 Greatest Star Wars Characters

6. Kylo Ren (Ben Solo)

Star Wars The Last Jedi Trailer Kylo Ren
Lucasfilm

Kylo Ren may not be the best villain in the Star Wars franchise, but he most definitely is its most interesting.

Son to Han and Leia, nephew to Luke and grandson to Anakin, Ben Solo is one of the most fascinating antagonists in modern cinema. Unlike his grandfather, who was inherently drawn towards the darker aspects of the Force, Ben was manipulated, radicalised and twisted into becoming a dark agent of the Force, to the point where it's not the dark side he resists, but the light instead.

It's a brilliant twist on one of Star Wars' older premises, but it's the metaphorical aspects of Kylo's character that resonate most today. He's a young man radicalised by a dark and twisted legacy, and one who cannot be turned. He's ambitious, emotional, and the perfect antagonist for the Star Wars of today.

This is all without even mentioning Adam Driver's tremendous performance as the character, which perfectly captures Ben's now corrupted innocence.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.