Going into Star Wars: The Last Jedi, if someone asked you to guess which of the First Order’s three big cheeses would be most likely to die, a lot of fans would have guessed General Hux. As it turned out, however, he made it through the events of Episode VIII and Supreme Leader Snoke, who had been set up to be a huge, fearsome threat in The Force Awakens, did not. By the end of the movie, Kylo Ren was left in charge of the First Order, with Hux as his reluctant lackey.
This turn of events came as a surprise to actor Domhnall Gleeson, as he’d assumed his character would have bitten the dust instead of Andy Serkis’ wrinkled master puppeteer. While speaking on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Gleeson revealed his shock at still being part of the franchise and also joked about the possibility of Hux being the only villain left standing – and how angry the fans would be at that.
“I’ll be honest, I was very surprised that [General Hux] survived. I kind of imagined myself getting blown up in a ship pretty early on. …There’s also this moment when [Kylo] Ren is on the ground, and it looks like maybe I’ll finish him. It’s like, what state would the franchise be in if Snoke and Ren are gone? And it’s just Hux going right. Can you imagine how annoyed people would’ve been?”
You can see why Gleeson believed he wouldn’t make it through the movie. The obvious analogue for Hux in the original trilogy is Grand Moff Tarkin, who only appeared in A New Hope (until he was resurrected via CGI in Rogue One). In contrast, Hux is going to make it through the whole trilogy. In fact, you could even say that he’s the ultimate villain of these films. At least Ren wavers between the light and the dark. Hux is just zealously committed to causing terror throughout the galaxy.
We’ll have to see what sort of fate awaits General Armitage Hux when Episode IX arrives on December 20th, 2019. In the meantime, you can look forward to reliving Star Wars: The Last Jedi when it makes its way to DVD and Blu-Ray in late March.