With the first full trailer for Star Wars: The Last Jedi right around the corner now and the film itself tantalizingly within reach, we’re about to get a whole lot of questions answered about what’s going on in the Star Wars universe post-The Force Awakens. One of the biggest mysteries surrounds the Knights of Ren, six or seven Force users who once counted Kylo Ren as a member.
We first got a glimpse of them in Rey’s Force flashback in The Force Awakens, but their precise role within the saga has been something of a mystery – until now (maybe). YouTube channel Star Wars Theory claims that the Knights began as “a group of diehard fanboys, almost a cult, who have been looking for Snoke. Now they’ve found him, and they will do anything for him.” Not only that, but SWT believes that they’ve gone on to become the villain’s Praetorian guard.
Star Wars Theory cites an anonymous source who explains the Knights as follows: “They vow to serve Snoke and protect him as he regenerates. Willing to give their lives at opportune moments to give Snoke power in battle. The Knights of Ren don’t talk. They have little life in them. Just a slight presence in one small shard of the person that was once there before.”
Furthermore, the report notes that Kylo Ren can “control them, like a lightsaber or maybe gloves. Each one has something that glows on them, like the rings on the mace. Each one is unique. They’re not drones… But they’re an extension of Kylo. It’s very hard to explain.”
Whether there’s any truth to this or not remains to be seen, but it’s interesting that the Knights have been absent from all promotional material to date, indicating that there’s something about them that’s so crucial to the ongoing plot that it must be kept under wraps. That, or they’re anonymous masked cannon fodder who’ll be unceremoniously dispatched by our heroes without a second thought.
Either way, we’ll know for sure on December 15th, when Star Wars: The Last Jedi hits cinemas.