Domhnall Gleeson says he would have loved to have delved deeper into the “bitterness” of his Star Wars villain General Hux, before Rise of Skywalker’s twist ended the character’s story in surprising fashion.
Warning! Spoilers for The rise of Skywalker follow…
Hux appears in all three of the Star Wars sequel trilogy films, beginning as a downtrodden sidekick for Kylo Ren, and ending up as a secret Rebel spy. Unfortunately for Hux, his last minute change of heart ultimately spells his doom — as he is quickly discovered and killed off.
It’s an abrupt reveal and an even swifter demise for one of the few characters to appear in all of the sequels, though no less messy than anything else in the disappointing Star Wars Episode 9: Rise of Skywalker. And while Hux’s sideplot is hardly the most pressing storyline, even Gleeson has admitted he’d previously hoped for more.
“Speaking genuinely, it would have been nice to go into the real bitterness at the heart of him,” Gleeson told Liv Marks. “In a quiet way, just to find a couple of quiet moments with him, where it’s not performative, where the real danger of him comes across.
“A kicked dog will end up attacking someone,” he continued, “and he is a kicked dog by the end of that sort of stuff. So I would have loved to go into that stuff but, spoiler alert, I got shot in the chest by Richard E. Grant.”
As part of the same interview, Gleeson said his big speech to the First Order troops was one of his easiest scenes as he knew how to fully lean into the character at such a dramatic moment. At the same time, Gleeson said his corridor conversations with Adam Driver’s petulant Kylo Ren needed to worked on in the moment, in order to ensure the pair walked the fine line to make the scenes work.
Perhaps there’s room for more Hux in the wider Star Wars universe of spinoff books, comics and video games? I for one would be glad to see more of Gleeson’s glowering baddie, working to quietly undermine the First Order. It’d be better than what we actually got in Rise of Skywalker!
Next up for the Star Wars franchise — and sadly without Hux — Disney will finally return to the ongoing exploits of Ahsoka in a second season of Disney+ TV episodes next year. Then there’s Ryan Gosling’s Star Wars: Starfighter, headed to theaters in May 2027. Hopes are high for both of these, after the middling response to this year’s The Mandalorian and Grogu.
Image credit: Mert Alper Dervis /Anadolu via Getty Images.
Tom Phillips
News Editor
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
