While Darth Vader has yet to make an appearance in the current Star Wars trilogy, the legendary Sith still holds a presence in the latest episodes, thanks largely to the villain’s adoring grandson Kylo Ren. And while Anakin Skywalker ultimately returned to the Light Side in his final moments, a new piece from Screen Rant speculates that Star Wars: Episode IX could give us an idea of how Vader’s story would’ve progressed if he’d never turned good.
Vader’s moment of redemption came after Luke Skywalker approached him with the belief that there was still some good left in him. Though Vader remained loyal to the Emperor at first, he eventually came to his senses after witnessing Palpatine torture Luke, provoking him to slay his master before dying himself.
Fast-forward to The Last Jedi, and you see a very similar sequence of events, only Rey is the Jedi who tries to turn the villain back to the Light Side, Kylo is the antagonist who may still have some good in him and Snoke is the master he kills. This more recent sequence, however, ends on a drastically different note, with Kylo asking Rey to join his side, instead of joining hers.
Now that Adam Driver’s character is the new Supreme Leader, there’s still time for a last-minute redemption. But since that’s already been done in Return of the Jedi, ScreenRant argues that the more interesting route would be to have Kylo embrace his inner monster and become the embodiment of evil that Vader ultimately proved he wasn’t.
Of course, this is all just speculation for the time being, but Abrams could certainly go down worse routes for Star Wars: Episode IX, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to find that there’s some truth to the theory when the film hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.