There are many questions that Star Wars fans have about what happened before the events of The Force Awakens. The Last Jedi helped clear a few of those up, but one big one that’s still dangling is the mystery of the Knights of Ren. We’ve seen them in flashback and it’s generally assumed that they’re the other students of Luke Skywalker’s Jedi academy that Supreme Leader Snoke managed to coax over to the dark side, along with Kylo Ren himself. However, no proper explanation for them has been given so far.
It would make sense, then, for the Knights to finally make an impact in Star Wars: Episode IX – especially because J.J. Abrams is returning to the direct and wrap up the trilogy he began in 2015. One Reddit user, who goes by the name @Frerky5, has shared a theory on what happened to Kylo’s groupies to explain their absence from the previous two movies. In particular, the fan suggests they’ll be used to introduce the concept of “Grey Jedi” to the film series.
To explain why they [The Knights of Ren] haven’t been around it could go one of two ways:
- They were on an assignment and are now angry with Kylo for killing their leader. In this case, they betray Kylo/the First Order and Rey tries to rescue Kylo but he dies.
- They part ways as Kylo went more and more to the dark side. Rey finds them on a quest to gather forces for the resistance. They have become something like grey Jedis and offer Rey to join them while Kylo and Hux try to defeat one another and leave the First Order open to attacks from the Resistance.
Anyway, I hope we see them and get some backstory about Snoke from them. Also they could be a way to introduce a “new way of the Jedi” to conclude what Episode 8 was trying to do.
The first option is a possibility, but the second one would be a lot more fascinating. Both TFA and, in particular, TLJ have teased the notion of a new Jedi order rising from the ashes of both the light and the dark sides. The Grey Jedi’s a concept developed in spinoff media and would be a ripe one to explore in this context in Episode IX. Maybe Matt Smith is even playing the main Knight who, according to this theory, will ally with Rey.
Time will tell, but what are your own theories about the Knights of Ren? And how do you think they’ll fit into Star Wars: Episode IX? Have you say in the comments section down below.
