This unassuming First Order officer has a LOT of blood on his hands.
THE BIG PICTURE
- General Hux has the highest kill count among all Star Wars villains, responsible for devastating loss through the activation of the Starkiller Base.
- Despite being easily dismissed, a closer look at Hux's story arc reveals the role of fascism, obsessions, and youthful ignorance in the sequel trilogy's contemplation of the past.
- Hux's character arc was misused in The Rise of Skywalker, as his intriguing development as a spy for the First Order was treated as a cutaway gag before his untimely demise.
The Star Wars saga may have a better rogue's gallery than any other media franchise in the history of popular culture entertainment. Darth Vader is largely regarded as one of the most iconic science fiction antagonists in film history, even if it's really Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) who is pulling the strings. There’s a diversity to the Star Wars villains; throughout the saga, we’ve seen greedy gangsters like Jabba the Hutt, corrupted political figures like Grand Moff Tarkin (Peter Cushing), remorseless bounty hunters like Cad Bane (Corey Burton), and unique characters like Maul (Ray Park), who after being a spurned Sith apprentice, grows into one of the most powerful criminal leaders in Star Wars’ underworld. However, the Star Wars character with the most blood on their hands didn’t appear for the first time until the sequel trilogy.
Domhnall Gleeson’s General Hux Has the Most Blood on His Hands in the Galaxy
The new era of the franchise under Disney has ushered in a wave of new and exciting antagonists, including Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), Syril Karn (Kyle Soller), and the newest version of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). However, the Star Wars villain with a higher kill count than anyone else isn’t a Sith Lord, a trained Mandalorian warrior, or a powerful gangster — it’s the creepy First Order officer General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson), whose activation of the Starkiller Base superweapon program ends up obliterating countless lives within multiple star systems. The estimated number of lives taken by General Hux is estimated to be over 155 billion, though that number is not official. Hux is one of the most easily dismissed characters within the sequel trilogy, but a closer look at his story arc reveals some fascinating aspects about the role that fascism, obsessions, and youthful ignorance play within the new films’ contemplation of the past.
Gleeson was already an interesting choice to play Hux when he was first cast in the role of a mysterious new Star Wars villain. Despite his relative youth, Gleeson had a fairly impressive track record and had experience working in an extraordinary range of genres. He’s already appeared as endearing characters in high concept indies (Never Let Me Go, Frank), played demented character parts in darker films (Dredd, Cavalry), made his contributions to another legendary film franchise (Harry Potter), and had even been a romantic lead (About Time). Interestingly, the same year that Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released, Gleeson had already appeared in three other films where he was playing heroic characters with Ex Machina, Brooklyn, and The Revenant. He had become an unpredictable actor, and chose to turn Hux into a very different sort of Star Wars antagonist than the franchise had ever seen before.
General Hux Isn’t a Typical 'Star Wars' Villain
Each of the primary villains in the sequel trilogy represents a recognizable form of evil that is relevant to today’s audiences. If Darth Vader and the Imperial Empire were supposed to represent the Nazis in 1977, then in 2015 it was unnerving to see an angry young man like Kylo Ren keep Imperial memorabilia in his quarters and worship the teachings that had been passed down. However, there’s a difference between Hux and Ren. Hux is so heavily indoctrinated within the fascist teachings of the First Order that he’s grown obsessed with proving himself as the only officer worthy of receiving admiration in the eyes of Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis). His incendiary speech at Starkiller Base is almost performative; Hux demands attention, and wants it to be more than evident to the eyes of all in attendance that there is no one more loyal than him.
Hux’s jabs and arguments with Ren feel like the squabbling of children, and it’s hard not to laugh at these distinguished military officials bickering with each other like moody adolescents. J.J. Abrams makes it clear in The Force Awakens that Hux is the butt of a joke. What’s scary is that despite his petulant ignorance, Hux is a character who wields tremendous power and has a significant influence on the shaping of galactic events. He’s a fool who's been tricked into thinking that serving a distinguished evil leader like Snoke will be rewarded, even if the Supreme Leader goes out of his way to humiliate Hux in front of his men in The Last Jedi.
George Lucas may have been trying to make a similar point with Jar Jar Binks in Attack of the Clones when the clueless Gungan ends up signing over emergency powers to the Supreme Chancellor, but it works much better in The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi thanks to the versatility within Gleeson’s performance. There’s a snideness to him that indicates that he’s nothing more than a childish bully in a uniform. Hux tattles on Ren in front of Snoke, scoffs at the notion that one of his men could have defected, and gets completely humiliated after Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac) teases him with a few personal insults during The Last Jedi’s opening action sequence. Hux may have won a short term victory, but it certainly hasn’t earned him anyone’s respect.
‘The Rise of Skywalker’ Misused Hux
Unfortunately, the clever character arc that Abrams and Rian Johnson had set up in the first two films was not concluded satisfyingly in The Rise of Skywalker. Hux reveals to Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), and Poe that he was really the spy that had been informing on the First Order’s movements. He had previously been so driven by his ability to prove himself in front of Snoke and resolve his petty rivalry with Ren, that he never actually thought about the ramifications of his actions. While on paper this is a clever way to show Hux’s immaturity and could have led to an interesting redemptive arc, it’s treated as nothing more than a cutaway gag when the character is killed off moments later.
Hux certainly isn’t going to be a Star Wars antagonist that sells out action figures, as he has no cool weapon or distinguishable armor that announces his villainy from a mile away. However, he’s a fascinating character, and shows that it’s often those with the most petulant of motivations that end up wrecking the most havoc.
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