Ben Rothwell has an idea for the most villainous 'Star Wars' character ever
When Ben Rothwell isn't knocking out or submitting opponents inside the Octagon, he's actually an admitted nerd with a love for all things geeky, including a long-time passion for the "Star Wars" franchise.
In fact, Rothwell isn't just a fan of "Star Wars" but he's actually created a character in his own image that he would love to see on the big screen one day.
It's not just a name or an idea, because Rothwell has fleshed out his character with a ton of detail. And the powers that be at Lucasfilm might want to listen to what the No. 4 ranked heavyweight has to say.
"The villain that I created, that I would be, the first defining thing that's different from all the other Sith is that he uses a black lightsaber," Rothwell told FOX Sports about his "Star Wars" creation. "His control of dark energy is prominent because he uses the Force to control the length of his lightsaber, which is a huge advantage. I don't think they explore the Force enough. You can do a lot of stuff.
"Well, then I can control dark energy and through that you're talking about travel. When you start talking about how to get from point A to point B and how the universe works, you really understand the science of it, you start to understand the Force can do a lot of crazy things. Obviously, my character knows the knowledge of all of these things."
Rothwell calls his character "Xadus" and he's gone further than just giving him a cool name and a few details to go along with the idea.
He's put a lot time and thought into creating his character and Rothwell believes he's found a way to up the ante for evil in the "Star Wars" universe.
"Not only can my lightsaber stretch across the room, I can walk into a room and turn all their lightsabers on them while they're still attached to them, cut them in half. Then I pick up all their lightsabers with my Force, I activate them, and now you have 30 whirling lightsabers — and you have the one Jedi who could suppress that, I send all 30 lightsabers at him and annihilate him. Plus with my dark energy I can disappear so one second I'm here and then where did I go?" Rothwell stated.
"Those aspects involved, I'm a pretty bad ass villain. He's so bad ass, he even (expletive) on the Sith. He thinks the Sith have not done the Dark Side justice. They're weak, they continue to lose. He comes in and makes the Sith scared of him. He makes the Jedi scared of him. He is the universe's enemy. That's how bad ass this guy is going to be. He scares everybody."
Rothwell admits while he'll always be a fan of the franchise there were some issues he had with "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and he believes catering to a younger audience might be part of the problem.
He'd like to see "Star Wars" reach a more mature demographic, and his character wouldn't be made for a "PG-13" crowd.
"This Star Wars, it has to be rated 'R'," Rothwell said. "That's one of the big fallbacks, they want it to be family-oriented. No, you need to let my lightsaber cut people in half. There needs to some death. When I rip a Star Destroyer out of the sky, I don't just send it crashing down — I drop it on a city of people.
"I just want to take bad to the next level. It needs to happen."
Rothwell will put his moonlighting as a "Star Wars" creator on hold this Sunday when he faces Junior Dos Santos in the main event at UFC Fight Night in Croatia airing live on FS1.
