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Hot on the heels of yesterday’s “flash fights” article we have some updates on The Knights of Ren for you.

Knights of Ren and Lando in Jordan

A lot of what I’ve heard about the Knights of Ren in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker pertained to the Jordan shoot. It seems the majority of their action takes place at that location. The good news is the action sounds significant. Not only have I heard that Lando Calrissian had sequences filmed for the Jordan set at Pinewood but the Knights of Ren did as well at Pinewood and Jordan. That sounds over-the-top rad to me. I don’t however know if Lando encounters the Knights himself. But any movie where I’m seeing Lando and the Knights of Ren within moments of one another is probably going to be exciting as hell.

I had an opportunity to check out The Knights of Ren in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Back in 2014, I first saw the concept art for these bad guys and they were a bunch of pirates. I seem to recall one even having a lightsaber in the concept phase. That idea seems to have come back in rumor circles for The Rise of Skywalker. But honestly, there doesn’t appear to be a saber used by any of them as far as I have seen. One has a dagger and one of the hilts could be mistaken for a lightsaber, I think. The work on “The Ren” for The Rise of Skywalker appears to consist of upgraded versions of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens work and designs which are not that far off from what they already had used to my eye. But that’s not to say it isn’t better because it is. What we saw was so minuscule in 2015 that I don’t think most of the changes will really be that noticeable to general audiences.

Six Knights of Fun

From what I have seen there will be six Knights of Ren in The Rise of Skywalker. Two of those knights use really big guns. Those guns looks like something out of Halo or an Xbox video game. They aren’t very Star Wars in design classically speaking and you can kind of see those weapons in Star Wars: The Force Awakens “forceback” moment. These two knights with guns remind me the most of their Star Wars: The Force Awakens counterparts than any of the other knight revisions and while the guns were probably upgraded I couldn’t tell you how they were different if they even are. I think the lights might have been different but don’t quote me on that.

To me it did not look like any of the knights went back to the drawing board for a total revision, only maybe the costumes where upgraded a little since they’re going to have a larger role than before. Better fabrics and leathers are perhaps used and a few of the patchwork sections might be done with a little more finesse but they still look ragged as hell. Kylo’s promotion to Supreme Leader didn’t seem to get them a raise for the fashion budget. I would say the differences are probably not unlike Darth Vader from A New Hope to Return of the Jedi in that regard. I used to have really clear pictures of the Knights from Star Wars: The Force Awakens with the green screen behind them and no rain, but I’ve lost them to time it seems, so I couldn’t compare them as well as I would have liked to.

The Ren is Too Dam High and this Weapon is Weird

The guy with the iron face and the staff (shown below on the right) looked really similar too but I think maybe the cowl is different fabric and sightly different in color but the rain may be playing tricks on my eyes. You can clearly see his weapon The Force Awakens. But I saw him with a weapon that was pretty strange to me, at least from the perspective in which I saw it. It looks like a stick with half a wagon wheel on it. You can see spokes. but the half of the wheel like the blade of a axe, similar to the Gamorean guard. In real life it doesn’t look like it would be effective against anything but I’m sure it has some feature we don’t understand.

The knight with the face that kind of reminds me of Judge Dread has a mace that almost reminds me of a cobra ornament at the top of it but I think it actually splits in three sections and has a serrated edge to it. His staff gets thin near where he holds the weapon and then thickens up at the rear as if it has a baseball bat on the other end of it. Both sides of the weapon looks pretty deadly. I think the weapon’s gripe might be red however it might be the light from Kylo’s saber making me think so.

While Kylo is Playing Chess, The Ren are Playing Checkers

The Knight with the checkerboard face I saw with two different weapons at different times. He’s hard to see in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens, for me at least. One weapon was was wrapped staff with a blade on the end kind of like a Pu Dao (Long Staff Broad Sword). You can see how his chest piece sort of Velcro’s together in the concept there but the costume from Rise of Skywalker appears more like a sideways V with the point of the V pointing towards his left side. The interesting thing was I saw “Checkers” (center and left below) as we call him with a mace and the end of it was really similar to a Tusken Raider’s Gaderfi stick or it had a giant talon on the end. Either way, it was in essence the same idea as the Tusken’s classic weapon. I’m not sure if they tried different weapons in the film or if they lose them and come back with new and different ones for the next sequence. On the leaked poster from a a few weeks ago you can see the weapon and I can confirm that is the final design of that weapon.

One of the knights who almost has a Plo Koon style mask (image above far right side) has an oversized butcher knife like a boat paddle. His weapon is almost as if you took a paddle and turned it into a huge butcher knife. But I also noticed he has a dagger on his belt as well. The back of his “hat” has a cape that goes to the small of his back. However, I saw the “dagger” on his belt and he may have had two or a variant. Perhaps he loses one during early on. Because another time I saw him it looked like the hilt on the knife what more ornamental. However, I am leaving it open to the possibility the differences were between stunt and “hero” versions of the character. That said the cowl looks different to me in the Star Wars: The Force Awakens version of this character.

Was that a Knight of Ren in the The Rise of Skywalker Teaser?

For fun here is a look at the “clan leader” getting killed in Star Wars: The Force Awakens:

Here is Kylo killing the guy in the jungle:

The guy getting killed in the shot above does not seem to match any Knight of Ren. I believe the guy getting killed is a Resistance trooper. If you recall a while ago we talked about a scene filmed in Black Park with Resistance troopers in large hats and some of them looked like Endor Rebel Troopers from Return of the Jedi. Well, I’m guessing this guy is one of them or he’s a native fighting with the Resistance in this sequence that gets pretty jacked up by Kylo Ren.

The Knights of Ren are Rad

Kylo Ren’s new helmet with the red cracks looks really cool with these guys by his side. I think they did a really good job with the designs. I think there’s a lot to like here and a lot of latch onto for fans and a lot to like. One source said that with IX, the powers that be were aware that fans wanted more from their badass characters like Captain Phasma and The Knights of Ren. I’m pretty sure based on what I’m hearing they’re going to deliver on on that action.

Check back for more Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker news!

Music I like, Make, and Promote for Fun:

All during Celebration I listened to Holychild. Liz and Louie are super talented and really nice people. I like sharing what I learned from the new Star Wars film and every now and then I like to share what I’m listening to. So check out Holychild’s Hundred Thousand Hearts which is the best single of 2018 and it came out in late 2018:

Check out Holychild on Spotify.

Also my EP was re-released, as the new one is about to come out, so check it out on Spotify if you haven’t heard it:

Making music keeps me and reporting on Star Wars. It other words, Making Star Wars needs making music so listen. Thanks!