Although Lucasfilm’s Star Wars movies have successfully created a massive fanbase with their extraordinary storylines and riveting scenes, there are a few films that garnered backlash. One such movie is Daisy Ridley’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, featuring Adam Driver.
While the film faced severe criticism for detailing the plot and making the sequel trilogy feel directionless, it also generated a polarizing response to a kissing scene between Daisy Ridley and Adam Driver. As the fandom felt the kiss didn’t make any sense, Ridley unapologetically defended the passionate scene with her co-star.
Fans Found Rey and Kylo’s Kiss Meaningless
As the Star Wars franchise started growing and gaining popularity and fanbase, Lucasfilm began exploring the potential of every character and their storylines. Therefore, in 2019, they came up with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, which people believed had enough potential to earn praise and box office numbers.
Unfortunately, after the film was released, fans were slapped in the face with their own expectations as the movie significantly failed to stick to the plotlines. Derailing itself to such an extent, that the movie eventually left the entire sequel trilogy feel directionless. Further, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was also blamed for surrounding itself with characters that nobody cared about.
Eventually, the film generated a humiliating response and fans also criticized the scene where Rey (Daisy Ridley) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) share a passionate kiss before his death. According to Variety, fans claimed that the scene gave in to the audience’s demands of a full-blown romance storyline, and alienated the true base of the fandom.
Thus, several fans slammed the 2019 movie and purposefully criticized Lucasfilm’s attempt at creating a love story, since fans felt the kiss was completely meaningless. Instead, they believed Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker could have become a one-of-a-kind movie if only the creators focused on important aspects.
Daisy Ridley Defended Her Kiss With Adam Driver
After Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker was shredded for failing to match fans’ expectations, and they criticized the kissing scene, Daisy Ridley stood up in support of her passionate kiss with Adam Driver. Unapologetically defending Rey and Kylo’s kiss during her appearance on the January 29th episode of Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast, Ridley even explained the reason and meaning behind the kiss.
“It felt earned. And what was interesting again, I think it’s like intentionality. My feeling in that moment was it was a goodbye, so that felt earned. Because, I mean, you can call a kiss a thousand things, but I felt like it was a goodbye. And that whole scene felt so emotional, and I felt like I was saying goodbye to the job.”
The controversial kissing scene takes place in The Rise of Skywalker’s ending where Rey is forced to confront Emperor Palpatine. In an attempt to help Rey win, Kylo Ren returns to the light side and tries using his assistance and the new Force powers. But unfortunately, the confrontation with Palpatine takes everything out of Rey, and she appears to die after defeating the Emperor. That’s when he revives Rey using his own life force and share one last passionate kiss, before becoming one with the Force.
While fans believed the scene was entirely meaningless, Daisy Ridley defended her kiss with Adam Driver. Claiming that the kiss felt “earned”, especially since it was a moment of goodbye in the movie, the actress explained the scene. However, while Ridley passionately defended the kiss, it seems unlikely that there’s a future for Rey and Kylo Ren’s relationship, given that Driver has no intentions of reprising his role.
