Knights of Ren

"Prepare to crush any worlds that defy us. My knights and I are going hunting for the scavenger."

- Supreme Leader Kylo Ren

The Knights of Ren were a mysterious order of elite warriors that followed the dark side of the Force in an age when the Sith were extinct and the Jedi Order was all but destroyed. They were neither Jedi Knights nor Sith Lords, but members of a new generation of Force warriors that emerged prior to the slaughter of Jedi Master Luke Skywalker's apprentices, the most promising of which was Kylo Ren. Seduced by the power of the dark side, the former Ben Solo renounced the Jedi and adopted a new name in addition to the title master of the Knights of Ren, becoming Supreme Leader Snoke's disciple and a warlord of the First Order. Under Snoke's guidance, the Knights of Ren filled the vacuum left by the demise of Kylo's grandfather, Darth Vader, the last Sith Lord. Ren, who earned the nickname "Jedi Killer" by destroying the generation of Jedi trained by Skywalker, was determined to destroy the last Jedi and fulfill his grandfather's legacy.

During the final days of the cold war, Ren hunted his former master with the support of the First Order's forces, traveling across the galaxy in search of clues to the location of Skywalker's hermitage. When a chain of events ensued, conspiring to force a confrontation between Kylo and his father, Han Solo, Snoke advised his oft-conflicted apprentice to prepare for his greatest challenge yet. Though still vulnerable to the light side of the Force, the master of the Knights of Ren was confident that the Supreme Leader's training had prepared him to succeed where Vader and his sentimentality failed.

Shortly before the fall of the New Republic, the Jakku scavenger Rey visited Maz Kanata's castle on the planet Takodana, where the Force led her to discover the Jedi lightsaber that once belonged to Luke Skywalker and his father, Anakin Skywalker, before him. Unaware of her own connection to the Force, Rey touched the lightsaber and consequently experienced a series of Force visions, one of which revealed Kylo and the enigmatic Knights of Ren. After Kylo Ren disposed of Snoke and rose to become the Supreme Leader of the First Order, the Knights of Ren guarded him more closely and often followed him. However, when Ben Solo redeemed himself and Kylo Ren ceased to be, the Knights of Ren instead pledged loyalty to the resurrected Darth Sidious and the Final Order, leading Ben and Rey to slaughter all the Knights on Exegol during the final battle of the Resistance against Palpatine's Sith fleet, ending the order of Ren.

Description
"The Ren doesn't stop to worry about what it's burning or the right or wrong of it, or the goals it might achieve. The Ren just is. It lives, and it consumes, and it doesn't apologize. It is its nature and nothing else."

- Ren, a leader of the Knights, explaining the group's philosophy.

The Knights of Ren were neither Jedi nor Sith, but a new generation of dark side warriors that emerged to fill the void left by the supposed demise of the last Sith Lords, Darth Sidious and Darth Vader. They had code, to which they were flexible in following: living life the way they wanted, taking what the galaxy gave them, and consuming what the dark side sent them.

The archetype of this new generation was Kylo Ren, the master of the Knights of Ren and heir to the bloodline of the most powerful Jedi and Sith in galactic history. The Knights of Ren served as Kylo's most mysterious and deadly servants. Force-sensitive like their master, albeit only to a middling degree. The Knights could tap into the dark side, though not to the extent of the Jedi or the Sith. Nevertheless, their fighting skills and martial prowess were without equal.

The Knights of Ren was made up of the following six individuals:
 * Ushar, whose main weapon was a battle club with concussive blast abilities
 * Trudgen, who wielded a large vibrocleaver and was known to take keepsakes from slain enemies
 * Kuruk, who wielded a sniper rifle and piloted the Knights‘ ship
 * Ap’lek, a Knight who carried a Mandalorian executioner’s axe and used deception to defeat enemies
 * Vicrul, who carried a vibroscythe and was known as the “Harvester”
 * Cardo, a Knight skilled with weapon modification that utilized a large cannon attached to his arm

Despite Kylo Ren's ties to the First Order, the other Knights were not aligned with the Galactic Empire's successor, as Kylo and Supreme Leader Snoke were the only two beings who could command the Force in that hermit state. However, after Snoke's death at Kylo Ren's hands, the Knights of Ren's presence amongst the First Order became common. Having become the Supreme Leader of the Order, Ren looked at the Knights of Ren as his own equivalent to Snoke's Elite Praetorian Guard. However, the Knights could only be commanded by Ren, much to the displeasure of the Supreme Council.

History
"Even you, master of the Knights of Ren, have never faced such a test."

- Supreme Leader Snoke, to Kylo Ren

The Knights of Ren operated in the New Republic Era, following the Galactic Civil War and prior to the second fall of the Jedi Order. Although the Sith lineage of Darth Bane ended with the death of Kylo Ren's grandfather, Darth Vader, the dark side of the Force endured and was strong with Kylo as well as his master, Supreme Leader Snoke. Kylo, who was originally trained as a Jedi by his uncle, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker, was seduced by the dark side like his grandfather before him. Discarding his former life as Ben Solo, Kylo adopted the roles of master of the Knights of Ren and warlord of the First Order, while Skywalker hid in exile out of shame and regret for his part in Kylo's fall to darkness.

Having forsaken his family and Jedi heritage, Kylo oversaw the First Order's mission to hunt and destroy the last remnants of the Jedi, including his uncle and former Master Luke Skywalker. However, he still felt the pull to the light, and would turn to one of his artifacts&mdash;the charred helmet of his grandfather&mdash;in hopes of strengthening his connection to the dark side and his commitment to the First Order's cause. As Kylo's quest drew him closer to an eventual reunion with his estranged father, Han Solo, Snoke warned his oft-conflicted acolyte that he would soon face his most difficult task. Confident in his training under the Supreme Leader, the master of the Knights of Ren believed he would not be seduced by the light, and was determined to succeed where Vader and his sentimentality failed.

During the waning hours of the cold war, Rey&mdash;a scavenger native to the forlorn frontier world of Jakku&mdash;traveled to Maz Kanata's castle on Takodana, where the Force ultimately led her to find the Jedi lightsaber that once belonged to Luke Skywalker and his father, Anakin Skywalker, in turn. Though unaware of her dormant connection to the Force, Rey was able to experience several Force visions by touching the lightsaber. Among the things she saw were the Knights of Ren. After the galaxy was cast into a state of war as a result of the New Republic's destruction in 34 ABY, Kylo assassinated Snoke and claimed his throne as the new Supreme Leader of the First Order.

A New Supreme Leader
"The Knights of Ren.''" "''Bunch of show-offs."

- Two stormtroopers after seeing Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren passing by

As a result of Kylo becoming the Supreme Leader, the Knights of Ren replaced the late Elite Praetorian Guard as his new personal guard and began following him more closely. However, only Kylo had control over the them, much to the displeasure of the Supreme Council. The presence of the Knights in most places that Kylo went also caused intimidation or general discontet for most of the personnel.

Palpatine's return and the hunt for Rey
In 35 ABY, the entire galaxy witnessed the return of Sheev Palpatine, the former Emperor of the Galactic Empire and a poweful Dark Lord of the Sith, who had perished during the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, but through powerful mastery of the Dark Side of the Force, managed to come back to life. Using a Sith wayfinder retrieved from the ruins of Fortress Vader on Mustafar, Kylo Ren tracked the ressurected Emperor to the Sith world of Exegol in the Unknown Regions with the intent of killing him, as he considered him to be a threat of his reign. However, Palpatine revealed to him that he had created Snoke as a puppet to lure Kylo to the Dark Side, and then explained his plan to reclaim the galaxy through the Final Order — an armada of Xyston-class Star Destroyers outfitted with axial superlaser cannons which he had been building for decades — and offered an alliance: he would let Kylo take command of the fleet, thus giving him the means neccesary to establish a new Empire and rule the galaxy, in exchange for finding and killing his grandaughter, who happened to be none other than Rey, now a Jedi, who formed a poweful Force dyad with Kylo.

Kylo ultimately accepted the offer, although he secretly planned to convince Rey to join him so that together they could kill Palpatine and then rule the galaxy as the Sith Emperor and Empress respectively, and had the Sith Eternal build him a new imposing helmet from the remains of his old one, with the Knights of Ren attending the process. Kylo later returned to his Star Destroyer, accompained by the Knights of Ren, to hold a meeting with the Supreme Council, informing them of this new powerful fleet, although some members were doubtful about trusting this mysterious cult.

Despite this, Kylo truly believed that Palpatine's fleet would finally help him claim the galaxy for himself and began his hunt for Rey, eventually tracking her down to the desert planet Pasaana through their Force dyad. Accompanied by the Knights of Ren, Kylo travelled to Pasaana and confronted Rey after she had him crash-land his TIE whisper, while her friends and allies — Finn, Poe Dameron, the Wookie Chewbacca, and droids BB-8 and C-3PO — prepared an old, rusty ship, formerly owned by the late Sith assassin Ochi, for take off. However, after Rey was distracted by Kylo emerging from his destroyed ship, Chewbacca went to inform them that they were ready to leave, unware that the Knights of Ren were also present and watched the entire ordeal. Subsequently, the Knights captured Chewbacca and took him prisoner aboard one of the two transporters that were present as well, taking him to Kylo's Star Destroyer. The other transporter was unwillingly destroyed by Rey using Force lightning during her confrontation with Kylo, leading her and the others to believe that Chewbacca had perished, although they would later discover the truth and go on a mission to rescue him from aboard the Star Destroyer on Kijimi. During this, Kylo would also informed Rey of being Palpatine's grandaughter and her parents abandoning her on Jakku to protect her for him, before being killed by Ochi.

Serving Palpatine and collapse
The Knights of Ren weren't present for the rest of Kylo's search for Rey, which culminated with a duel on Kef Bir, were a second Sith wayfinder was located amongst the ruins of the Death Star II. Kylo was defeated and fatally injured by Rey after sensing the death of his mother, Leia, who used her last remaining energy to reach out to her son in an attempt to redeem him. Rey, having sensed Leia's death as well, used Force heal to treat Kylo's injury, before leaving in his repaired TIE whisper. As a result of his mother's death, as well as speaking with a vision of his late father, Han Solo, Kylo finally redeemed himself and left his Kylo Ren persona behind, becoming Ben Solo once again.

After learning of their leader's redemption, the Knights of Ren instead pledged loyalty to Palpatine and served as his personal guards during the Battle of Exegol between the remains of the Resistance and the Final Order. Although they didn't face Rey when she came to confront Palpatine, as they were likely ordered by their new master not to do so, they instead attempted to stop their former leader, Ben, when he came to Rey's aid. Initially outnumbered and unarmed, Ben reached out to Rey through their Force dyad and she gave him one of her two lightsabers to fight with, which was present in the Skywlaker family for generations, namely Ben's uncle Luke and grandfather Anakin, while she fought using Leia's old lightsaber. Together, Ben and Rey proved their skill in combat against the Knights of Ren and soon managed to slaughter them all, ending the order of Ren.

Equipment
The Knights of Ren wore battered, rusty armor and concealed their faces beneath ominous masks–echoing the helmet of Kylo himself. Each Knight was armed with a unique and lethally effective weapon, suited to both close-quarter and long range combat.

Behind the scenes
"They’re characters that, when we came up with them in Force Awakens and had very brief sighting of them, it was something that we had a lot of ideas of sort of further adventures with them, backstory, you know, and all sorts of things that were not the focus of the central story, and never made it into the movie."

- J.J. Abrams

The Knights of Ren were created for the 2015 film Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens and appear in one of Rey's visions on Takodana. They were based on rejected designs for Kylo Ren. The Knights later appeared in the 2019 film Star Wars: Episode IX The Rise of Skywalker, where they were portrayed by Martin Wilde, Anton Simpson-Tidy, Lukaz Leong, Tom Rodgers, Joe Kennard and Ashley Beck.

During the Director commentary of The Force Awakens, director J.J. Abrams noted that the Knights had backstory, but it was not revealed at that time. While fleshing out the Knights of Ren for the Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren comic book series, Charles Soule took inspiration from motorcycle gangs, classic Westerns and Samurai tales to dramatize some of the lore behind the Knights.

According to Rian Johnson, writer and director of the 2017 film Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, the reason why the group do not appear in the film is that the movie was already full and there was no room for them. Johnson mused that they could have been used in place of Snoke's Elite Praetorian Guards, but it would have been a waste because all the guards had to die and Kylo's connection to the Knights would have added unwanted complications to the scene.

In May 2019, Vanity Fair revealed that the Knights of Ren would finally appear in The Rise of Skywalker. The article also featured a photograph of the Knights during filming at Jordan, alongside director J.J. Abrams. Vanity Fair described the Knights as "masked warriors with specialized weaponry who add an element of chaos to the war between the Resistance and the First Order" and compared their brutish look to those of the characters from the Mad Max films.

Non-canon appearances

 * LEGO Star Wars: The Force Awakens
 * Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes