The actor playing General Hux, Domhnall Gleeson, has joined fans in their collective surprise at the fate of Hux in "Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi," in which the character somehow survived.
This was after the violent transition of leadership and power in The First Order, in which Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) murdered Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) by cutting him in half, leaving Hux with a standing army of clone troopers and star destroyers. Those who have seen the movie will recall that Hux was at the mercy of Ren after this, and surprisingly, the latter did not kill him, perhaps since Ren still needs a commander for the First Order Army.
Gleeson, on the other hand, expected his character to die in the first ten minutes of the film, which is quite way off from Ren's mutiny that took place at the film's climax.
"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?" said Gleeson.
Hux did have the opportunity to betray Ren during his battle with Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) but chose not to. This ultimately means that Hux will be back in the yet-to-be-titled "Episode IX" of the franchise, presumably to continue his role as the commander of The First Order army and fleet.
Fans were also quite surprised at Hux's survival because a lot of them considered the character to just be a stand-in for a generic Imperial/enemy faction commander prevalent throughout the "Star Wars" saga. Most of these commanders perished in battle in a rather unceremonious manner, hence Gleeson's expectation for his character.
It remains to be seen whether Hux will also survive in "Episode IX," the final part of the new trilogy for "Star Wars" that is expected to premiere sometime in 2019.
