Star Wars' Domhnall Gleeson Wants To Learn More About General Hux
Domhnall Gleeson says he wants to learn more about his Star Wars character General Hux's backstory, which is explored more in novels and comic books.
Star Wars' Domhnall Gleeson wants to learn more about his character General Hux. J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker wrapped up the Star Wars sequel trilogy in 2019, which began in 2015, and also wrapped up the Skywalker saga. Disney and Lucasfilm's sequel trilogy not only saw a return of the legacy characters like Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and Han Solo (Harrison Ford), but introduced a new set of characters. The movies introduced new heroes like Daisy Ridley's Rey, John Boyega's Finn and Oscar Isaac's Resistance pilot Poe Dameron, as well as new antagonists like Adam Driver's Kylo Ren/Ben Solo and Domhnall Gleeson's First Order leader General Arimatage Hux.
Gleeson first appeared as General Hux in 2015's The Force Awakens, in which he was portrayed as a ruthless and cunning commander in a power struggle with Kylo Ren for the First Order leadership. He showed unwavering loyalty to Supreme Leader Snoke in the first two films, giving fans plenty of reason to dislike him. Though he was determined to be taken seriously, he was constantly undermined and ridiculed by others, becoming the butt of Poe Dameron's jokes in the beginning of The Last Jedi and losing even more of his power with the arrival of General Pryde (Richard E. Grant) in The Rise of Skywalker. Hux's arc came to a surprising end with The Rise of Skywalker, after the audience learns that he has been betraying the First Order and is the mole for the Resistance. However, he assures the other characters that he is not doing it for the Resistance, but rather that he just doesn't want to see Kylo Ren in power. He is soon after caught and executed for his crimes. Though this turning point was not necessarily a redemption arc for Hux, it still added an extra layer to the villainous character. Hux has a tragic backstory that was never fully developed in the movies that Gleeson himself wants to learn more about.
During a recent interview, Gleeson told Collider that there is still "lots" more he wants to know about General Hux. Gleeson discussed how Abrams and Rian Johnson added new layers to the character with each movie. Read Gleeson's full comment below:
Lots. I found something new out about him on every movie because not only did he change, but his circumstances changed. He always surprised me. Rian [Johnson] had this mad version of him that I wasn’t expecting for the second episode, which I absolutely loved. And then, similarly with J.J. [Abrams], there was a whole other aspect to his character in the third one that was super interesting and I never would have seen it coming. There’s loads there, but unfortunately, spoiler, he’s dead as a doornail. I’m not sure that there’s much room to investigate him further.
While Hux has a backstory outside of the films that could offer more insight into the character, the films do not really explore it. Novels and comic books reveal that Hux was an illegitimate child, whose father was abusive to him, and his need for power came when he was young. However, fans of the movies who aren't familiar with these books would not know any of this about him because the movies do not go into his backstory much at all. Gleeson even previously told Screen Rant that he wasn't in the marketing for The Last Jedi because he was "not one of the bigger characters" in the movie.
Fans might have begun to feel sympathy for Hux by the end of his arc in The Rise of Skywalker, as he really was a help to the Resistance. However, he was not suddenly a redeemable character as he was still responsible for plenty of deaths prior to his good deed, and most fans would probably agree that his time was up. His character still could have been more developed throughout the three Star Wars sequels though, especially as there is plenty of backstory to tell to make the audience understand him better.
Source: Collider