Estabelecer Kylo Ren firmemente como um vilão.

O próprio JJ Abrams disse que é disso que se trata:

Star Wars had the greatest villain in cinema history. So, how you bring a new villain into that world is a very tricky thing. We knew we needed to do something f—king bold. The only reason why Kylo Ren has any hope of being a worthy successor is because we lose one of the most beloved characters.

(Fonte: esta entrevista com Abrams e seus co-escritores Lawrence Kasdan e Michael Arndt.)

Kasdan elaborou sobre este ponto, dizendo que a história poderia ser vista como a saga de Kylo Ren: o amadurecimento de um vilão .

People always say, ‘Why do you think this saga is so popular?’ I really do believe the underlying theme is recognizing your potential and understanding what you’re capable of. It’s a quest we’re all on our entire lives. It doesn’t end. To understand what you’ve inherited, and what you like about that and what you don’t like about that. Have you fulfilled yourself completely — or is it too late? What is dormant? That’s a very real and tangible thing for people every day.

E Abrams novamente:

Long before we had this title, the idea of The Force Awakens was that this would become the evolution of not just a hero, but a villain. And not a villain who was the finished, ready-made villain, but someone who was in process.

[Han's death] is this massive tradeoff. How can we possibly do that!? But… if we hadn’t done that, the movie wouldn’t have any guts at all. It felt very dangerous.”

Para dar a Han Solo mais patos como personagem.

Desta vez, citando Arndt da mesma entrevista:

I had thought Han’s story and Leia’s story was just about them coming back together. At the end of the movie they would have reconciled and gotten over their differences. And you would have said, ‘Okay, bad stuff happened, but at least they’re back together again'. J.J. rightly asked, ‘What is Han doing in this movie?’ If we’re not going to have something important and irreversible happen to him, then he kind of feels like luggage. He feels like this great, sexy piece of luggage you have in your movie. But he’s not really evolving. He’s not really pushing the story forward.

O próprio Harrison Ford não parece ter nenhum problema. Ele tem feito campanha para matar Han Solo desde o retorno de Jedi:

E na entrevista acima referenciada, Abrams confirmou, com um desdém-mão:

Nah, he was fine.

You [Kasdan] wrote some of the greatest lines that Han ever spoke, so there was a level of comfort in the danger. You were willing to go there, which made me feel like it wasn’t necessarily the worst idea.

Harrison Ford pediu que Han fosse morto.

A origem da morte de Han parece ser o próprio Harrison Ford - ele queria que Han morresse em O Retorno de Jedi :

"It was a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...I thought the best utility of the character would be for him to sacrifice himself to a high ideal and give a little bottom, a little gravitas to the enterprise, not that there wasn’t some already but I just wanted in on some part of it. That was at the third occasion of filming the original three."

( Fonte )

Parece que esta ideia foi finalmente usada em The Force Awakens .

J.J. Abrams queria que Han morresse para transformar Kylo em um valente vilão.

J.J. A própria explicação de Abrams é aqui :

"Long before we had this title, the idea of The Force Awakens was that this would become the evolution of not just a hero, but a villain. Star Wars had the greatest villain in cinema history. So, how you bring a new villain into that world is a very tricky thing. We knew we needed to do something f--king bold. The only reason why Kylo Ren has any hope of being a worthy successor is because we lose one of our most beloved characters."