The Star Wars sequel trilogy’s antagonist, Kylo Ren, was initially imagined as a darker character who was perhaps even too dark for Disney, leading to his cinematic form. Kylo Ren is a different sort of dark side villain in the main Star Wars saga, whose inner conflict and emotional outbursts set him apart from colder and more calculating villains like Emperor Palpatine and Count Dooku. One of Kylo’s first conceptualized incarnations, known as the “Grave Robber,” seemed to have come from a more familiar school of thought as far as Star Wars saga villains go, but his more vicious early appearance and name suggest that Lucasfilm and Disney toned things down, which was ultimately the right move.
Kylo Ren’s finalized origin is comparable to that of the Legends character Darth Caedus, albeit significantly simplified. Like Caedus, Kylo Ren is an alias for Han Solo and Princess Leia’s son (and their only child, unlike the Legends continuity). Originally known as Ben Solo, Kylo Ren’s fall to the dark side occurred while he was a student of Luke Skywalker’s, leading him to join not the Sith Order like Darth Vader and Darth Caedus, but the Knights of Ren, which he soon became the new leader of. Aside from being part of a philosophically different dark side religion than the Sith, Kylo Ren has several key differences from his idol, Darth Vader, with the biggest one being that he wishes to be like Darth Vader instead of resigning himself to this fate.
These sort of fascinating complications and contradictions might not have existed in Kylo Ren’s Grave Robber concept, with artwork depicting a more macabre and intimidating character than the Kylo Ren seen in the films, and whose skull-like mask would have inspired far more terror in viewers and characters alike, alongside the terrible implications of his moniker. The decision to make Kylo Ren a less intimidating character might not have been motivated by a desire to make Star Wars family-friendly, but instead to humanize the character. The final version of Kylo Ren is an intimidating and unpredictably murderous character, but his humanity and constant inner turmoil wouldn’t have been possible with a more intimidating but less humanized character concept like the Grave Robber.
How The Grave Robber Would Have Differed From Ben Solo
Little is known about the Grave Robber as a character, other than his acquisition of Darth Vader’s charred helmet and a pose suggesting that he speaks to it like the canonical Kylo Ren. The Grave Robber might have ended up an individual with no familial connection to characters like Darth Vader or Palpatine, but simply an obsession with bygone warlords, which might have made him a different sort of dark reflection of the Jakku scavenger Rey. The problem is, the Grave Robber concept appears to be focusing too much on intimidation and mystery, when it was the antithesis of these qualities that ended up making Kylo Ren such a compelling villain.
Kylo Ren is a raw nerve, who wears a traditional Knight of Ren helmet that looks different enough from Darth Vader’s Sith mask while still visually alluding to his desire to emulate his fallen grandfather. Kylo Ren’s misguided and contradictory goals, which are largely motivated by the undead Palpatine’s manipulations, work as well as they do because there isn’t a mystery surrounding him. Kylo Ren’s atypical level of emotion and lack of enigma made him stand out as a Star Wars villain, and the darker Grave Robber concept, while visually pleasing, would not have been able to exhibit these traits nearly as well.