Coming off the one-two punch of Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness, J.J. Abrams proved instrumental in steering Star Wars: The Force Awakens to box office glory.
Despite heaping praise on the script underpinning the 2017 sequel, Abrams chose not to return for Star Wars: Episode VIII, but remains attached to Disney and Lucasfilm’s retooled franchise in some capacity. In fact, while speaking to Collider during the press rounds for the imminent Star Trek Beyond, the illustrious filmmaker revealed the one Star Wars story that he believes is befitting of a full-blown spinoff.
That is, the Knights of Ren, Snoke’s go-to band of warriors that operated for decades after the Galactic Civil War. Glimpsed during Rey’s Force dream during last year’s The Force Awakens, there’s an air of Boba Fett’s cult status swirling around the Knights of Ren in that, despite their paltry time on screen, those Dark Side warriors have already developed something of a following online.
Here, Abrams tells Collider that he thinks Ren’s brooding Knights are deserving of their own offshoot.
“I gotta say Kathy Kennedy, who’s running it all, she seems to be pushing all the right buttons. There isn’t something that I’d love to see—I guess the one thing I would say is there’s a Knights of Ren story that I think would be pretty cool to tell.”
Next up for the Lucasfilm’s beloved universe is Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which has been high on just about everyone’s radar (both literally and figuratively) of late. It’ll open on December 16 of this year, before Rian Johnson steers Episode VIII into theaters in late 2017. Star Trek Beyond, meanwhile, shoots for the stars (and theaters) on Friday, July 22.