InfoSearched
Nerdist just gave the Reylo fandom the ballad they never knew they needed.
Two days before the 91st Academy Awards, Nerdist Presents dropped a comedy music video that takes Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper’s Oscar-nominated “Shallow” and drags it straight into the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Released February 19, 2019, “A Star Wars Is Born — ‘Shallow’ Parody” swaps Jackson Maine and Ally for Kylo Ren and Rey, turning the film’s aching duet into a tug-of-war over the dark side. The clip runs 2 minutes and 26 seconds, and it doesn’t waste a second of it.
- Directed by Andrew Bowser and written by Erin Vail and Joan Ford, the parody casts Freddy Scott as Kylo Ren — who also produced the music and played guitar, bass, and piano — opposite singer Myah Marie as Rey.
- Kylo’s opening verse rewrites Jackson Maine’s pickup line into “Join the dark side girl / You’re not happy in that Jedi world / I can show you more / Like how to choke out people with the Force.”
- The chorus ditches Gaga’s vocal run for “Kylo, Kylo, Ky-hi-lo / Solo, Solo, So-lo-lo-lo-lo,” with Rey spending the bridge wondering whether her rival ends up as Ben Solo or Kylo Ren.
A Cantina Band’s Worth of Talent
Beyond Scott and Marie, the video leans on a small orchestra of comedic muscle. Kevin Fox shows up as a Stormtrooper on bass, Brandon Hillock plays Chewbacca, and the arrangement gets fleshed out by cellist Julia Wood and drummer Aidean Abounasseri. Jason Nguyen produced the piece, Connor Heck handled cinematography, and Tim Herrold ran visual effects and editing — the kind of full production stack that separates a Nerdist sketch from a fan-made lyric video.
Rewriting a Ballad for the Dark Side
The joke only works because the parody commits to the bit lyrically, not just conceptually. Kylo doesn’t just flirt — he pitches Rey on Force-choking as a relationship skill, then tells her to let the past die so they can rule together, lifting the line almost verbatim from ‘The Last Jedi’. Rey’s response keeps the emotional stakes of the original song intact while dragging in her own canon: she questions her droid, weighs whether Kylo can actually be redeemed, and references training on Ahch-To and seeing “the ghost of Luke.”
Join the dark side girl / You’re not happy in that Jedi world / I can show you more / Like how to choke out people with the Force.
That’s the trick of the whole video — it’s built for people who already know the difference between Ahch-To and Jakku, and it rewards them for it. Anyone who’s tracked the fandom’s obsession with the Kylo-Rey pairing, sometimes shortened online to “Reylo,” will recognize exactly why Nerdist picked this duet over any other Oscar contender.
The Timing Was the Punchline
Dropping the parody on February 19, 2019 wasn’t an accident. “Shallow” had already become the song of the awards season, nominated for Best Original Song heading into the Oscars, and Gaga and Cooper’s live performances of it were dominating entertainment coverage. Nerdist built the sketch to ride that wave directly into ‘Star Wars’ territory, using a moment when Reylo debates were already flooding message boards ahead of the still-untitled ninth episode. Fans hunting for more sequel-trilogy coverage or Skywalker Saga theme-park news can find related pieces like the Star Wars Hotel construction updates from Walt Disney World, while readers chasing more song parodies and music-adjacent bits from the same corner of the internet can browse InfoSearched’s trending music coverage.
The chorus swap from “Shallow, shallow” to “Kylo, Kylo, Ky-hi-lo / Solo, Solo, So-lo-lo-lo-lo” is the kind of gag that only lands if you already know Kylo Ren’s real name is Ben Solo — which is exactly the audience Nerdist was writing for. Two minutes and twenty-six seconds, no wasted lyric, and Freddy Scott doing his own guitar, bass, and piano work on top of the vocal. That’s the whole bit.
MOMENTS YOU WON’T BELIEVE WERE CAUGHT ON CAMERA!
GHOSTBUSTERS 3: AFTERLIFE Official Trailer (2020) Paul Rudd, Bill Murray
STANDING ONLY Korean BBQ & CHEAP All You Can Eat STEAK in Seoul
Usain Bolt’s last race ends in disaster, photo finish | NBC Sports
USA dominates in first mixed 4×400 relay, Allyson Felix breaks Usain Bolt’s record | NBC Sports