'Star Wars 7' Director J.J. Abrams Talks Creepy Kylo Ren Ashes In 'The Force Awakens'

J.J. Abrams, the director of last year's box office and critic smash Star Wars: The Force Awakens, has recently made a big revelation about one of the new characters of the saga: Kylo Ren, son of Han and Leia. Although Adam Driver's character struggled between the Light and Dark Sides of the Force in the film, his Stars Wars 7 fate was much more cemented -- and the movie's table full of ashes proves it.

Abrams, who also counts cult series Lost and the first two Star Trek reboot movies among his credits, recently talked to Entertainment Weekly about the deleted scenes from The Force Awakens. It seems one of them in particular could have changed perspective on Kylo quite a bit.

There's a moment during the scene where Kylo interrogates Rey (Daisy Ridley) in which he takes off his mask and puts it on a table made of ashes. While there's no background for that in the final movie, originally that scene had a much darker meaning.

"The backstory is, that that table has the ashes of the enemies he's killed," Abrams said. "That moment was actually shot for, and meant to be used in, the scene where he was talking to the Vader mask."

Kylo was also supposed to have his helmet off in that point of the film, but Abrams ultimately decided to have him show his face to Rey instead.

Still, if Kylo had killed so many people at that point (it's still unclear if he was the one who massacred the young Jedi apprentices in the flashback scene), was it really so surprising that he'd ultimately cave to the Dark Side of the Force? Sure, he had that one final step to go through, but his path seemed pretty solid at that point.

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According to The Independent, Driver spoke a little further about what drove Kylo to the Dark Side during the Force Awakens' Blu-ray commentary, confirming another theory: Han and Leia (Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher) were kind of absent when he was a kid. Because of this, he grew resentful and an easier target for the Dark Side.

The next installment of the Star Wars saga, the still-untitled Episode 8, will reach theaters on December 15, 2017. This year, spinoff film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will début on the big screen on December 16.