Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Knights of Ren Confirmed to Appear

The Knights of Ren will return in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but not in the way you think...

The Knights of Ren will finally return in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, according to Vanity Fair, which published a cover story about the movie that reveals a few interesting tidbits about this mysterious group of villains. The magazine also shared a photograph of the Knights of Ren on the Jordan set where the Pasaana portion of the movie was filmed. 

The most important new detail about the Knights of Ren is that the rumors we’ve been hearing for months are at least partially true: Kylo Ren is at odds with the rest of his order in The Rise of Skywalker. Why the sudden turn by the Knights of Ren? We don’t know yet, but it might have something to do with the outside threat that is rumored to challenge both the Resistance and the First Order in the movie. Have they allied themselves with the resurgent Emperor?

We don’t know, but it’s good to know we’ll finally get some answers concerning the history of the Knights of Ren and their whereabouts in the first two movies. So far, the Knights have only appeared in Rey’s flashback in The Force Awakens, standing alongside their lightsaber-wielding leader. The Last Jedi ignored the Knights altogether, although it might have dropped one important hint about the origin of the faction. 

In Episode VIII, Luke explains to Rey that Ben Solo left with a few of the Jedi Master’s students for parts unknown after burning down the academy. It’s likely that the classmates Ben chose to spare (he slaughtered the rest) were then converted to the dark side by Supreme Leader Snoke and initiated into the newly-formed Knights of Ren. Why they weren’t a part of Snoke and Kylo’s fight against the Resistance in the first two installments of the Sequel Trilogy is anyone’s guess, but that pesky rumor suggests that it’s because the Knights were on their own mission in the far reaches of space. 

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What does it all mean? We’ll know for sure when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker arrives in theaters on Dec. 20.  

John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9