You'd be forgiven for thinking that a new Star Wars was coming out already such is the presence of the cast and crew of 'The Force Awakens' over the last few weeks but alas, it is merely the Disney PR machine at full power as they prepare for the release of the film on Blu-Ray and DVD.
Thankfully though, instead of inane, innocuous appearances and ramblings, J.J. Abrams and the Star Wars team have been doling out nuggets of information from the set and behind-the-scenes, one of which Abrams shared with Entertainment Weekly concerning Kylo Ren's creepy ash-bedded table/helmet stand that had no explanation. Until now.
Turns out, it's all down to deleted scenes.
"Sometimes bits and pieces of one scene end up being something that you use in another scene that you didn’t expect," Abrams told EW. "That’s always kind of fun, when you realize that something you’ve shot actually has a use you didn’t expect. The backstory is, that that table has the ashes of the enemies he’s killed. That moment was actually shot for, and meant to be used in, the scene where he was talking to the Vader mask."
"He originally had his mask off the first time we shot that scene. Then we reshot it with his mask on, but we had that shot which I loved and thought was so cool of the mask being slammed down into that ash. So that shot was stolen from the scene that we had changed and put into the scene with Rey. He used to place his mask gingerly onto a piece of the set, which was incredibly unimpressive. So this moment made it a much cooler beat."
So there you have it. Not only were we supposed to see Adam Driver's mug far earlier in the film, but Ren also has a coffee table/helmet holder full of the ashes of people he's killed. Good luck adding your dear old dad's to that one Ren.
Via EW
