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Credit: LucasfilmDisney is seemingly continuing its crusade to rewrite the divisive sequel trilogy with its latest offering.
The Walt Disney Company’s Star Wars era may have brought audiences popular TV shows like The Mandalorian and beloved movies like Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), but for the most part, Disney’s take on the galaxy far, far away has been continually criticized.
After acquiring the billion-dollar franchise from George Lucas in 2012, Disney and Lucasfilm—the latter under the leadership of Kathleen Kennedy—quickly got to work on bringing fans of the decades-old saga back to the big screen.
There had been no movie since 2005’s Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith, so when Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens (2015) landed ten years later, fans flooded movie theaters worldwide and sent the seventh Skywalker Saga entry over the billion-dollar mark.
Following a similar story to Star Wars: Episode VI — A New Hope (1977), The Force Awakens introduces new unlikely heroes in the form of Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega), and Resistance pilot Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac).
New villains also arrived, with Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) and Supreme Leader Snoke (Andy Serkis) taking over from legacy characters like Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen/David Prowse/James Earl Jones) and Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid).
While this first entry also saw the return of the original trio–Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and Han Solo (Harrison Ford)–and the beloved Wookiee Chewbacca, the rest of the sequel trilogy movies entirely ruptured the fandom.
After J.J. Abrams’ film, Rian Johnson took over for Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi (2017) before Abrams returned to helm the ninth movie, Star Wars: Episode IX — The Rise of Skywalker (2019). From haphazard storylines to unfinished business and sidelined characters, the sequels suffered from a distinct lack of direction.
It wasn’t until the influx of shows on Disney+ that the frustration created by Disney’s sequel trilogy began to simmer. But, it only takes time for discourse to become fiery once again.
The recent addition to the Star Wars canon, The Acolyte, has drawn increasing criticism week after week. Created by Leslye Headland, the new series follows twin sisters Osha and Mae Aniseya (both played by Amandla Stenberg) as they come to terms with their past and present.
After four weeks and five episodes, The Acolyte finally revealed who was under the mask of The Master—the evil red-saber-wielding master of Mae–in episode five, “Night.” The Master was confirmed to be the smuggler Qimir, played by Manny Jacinto.
Qimir had been seen in the previous episodes of the series pretending to be a smuggler, and his unmasking as The Master continued the show’s unpredictability. After intense fights with the Jedi, which left Jecki (Dafne Keen) and Yord (Charlie Barnett) dead, Jedi Master Sol (Lee Jung-jae) escaped with who he thought was Osha but was, in fact, a disguised Mae.
This left Osha with Qimir, and one notable thing viewers noticed in the final moments of the episode the theme for Kylo Ren was played. There are a few things here.
The Knights of Ren had already been confirmed as having existed for centuries, and let’s remember that The Acolyte is set 100 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace (1999). In addition, the garb donned by Qimir is considerably similar to the all-black attire worn by both Kylo Ren and his Knights.
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The inclusion of Kylo Ren’s theme in an episode called “Night” (a homophone of the word “Knight”) is extremely mysterious, despite Qimir saying to Master Sol that he “might call him Sith.” But this dark side Force user may not be part of the line that leads to Emperor Palpatine, but a line that leads to the dark side warriors known as the Knights of Ren.
The Knights of Ren in Disney’s sequel trilogy era
One of the biggest issues with the Mouse’s take on the galaxy far, far away was the sudden reappearance of Emperor Palpatine (McDiarmid) in The Rise of Skywalker.
The restriction of this once-dead character also came with the whirlwind of new Star Wars lore. The introduction of the Sith hideaway planet of Exegol, the role of the Knights of Ren, and Rey’s true identity as a Palpatine were squeezed into two and a half hours and essentially retconned Rian Johnson’s previous entry.
The Knights of Ren were seen as one component that was drastically underused. Having only been seen through the Force prior to their arrival in The Rise of Skywalker, fans did not really have a grasp on what they were.
In the years following 2019’s Star Wars sequel movie, Disney has retroactively added context to this villainous faction. Confirmed to have existed for centuries, the Knights of Ren were prominent during the Galactic Empire and New Republic eras.
Seen in The Rise of the Skywalker and later expanded upon in the companion visual dictionary, the Knights of Ren traveled aboard their heavily modified cruiser, the Night Buzzard. The all-black ship also carried its own dark forge run by the Sith Alchemist Albrekh.
More information came in the “Star Wars: Crimson Reign” comic books. Taking place after the events of Star Wars: Episode V—The Empire Strikes Back (1980), the Knights of Ren teamed up with Q’ira and Crimson Dawn to battle Darth Vader, the grandfather of their future group leader Ben Solo, AKA Kylo Ren.
Kylo Ren became the leader of this faction after burning down Luke Skywalker’s fledgling Jedi Order and besting the current leader of the Knights in combat.
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If The Acolyte is showcasing the arrival of the Knights of Ren with Manny Jacinto’s character then this will be yet another piece of context added to the fractured Star Wars sequel trilogy.
The connection of The Master, or The Stranger, as he is now officially known, to the sequel trilogy era is not the first time Lucasfilm has retroactively added key information to contextualize the movies.
This year’s The Bad Batch Season 3 explored how Palpatine wanted children with high M-counts to help create Force-sensitive clones. Prior to this, in comics like “Star Wars: Darth Vader,” Disney hinted at how Luke Skywalker’s severed hand could have been the road to creating Supreme Leader Snoke. The comic series also saw Darth Vader visiting Exegol for the first time.
Did you notice the connections to Kylo Ren in The Acolyte? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!