5. The Knights of Ren
When the name “Knights of Ren” was first made known to Star Wars fans, it was a whisper of something dark and epic, a group of Force-wielding soldiers who were going to provide a terrifying counter to the forces of good. Surely subsequent movies were going to feature these dark side warriors and explain the name of their leader, Kylo Ren.
Instead the Knights are nowhere to be seen in The Last Jedi, replaced by Supreme Leader Snoke’s Preatorian Guard. In The Rise of Skywalker we at last get more than a flash of an image, but even there the group is given short shrift. They are never explained, never introduced, never featured. They are barely there until Ben Solo fights and kills them in an exciting battle sequence that merely whets our appetite for something more.
The Knights of Ren demand more screen time. The details provided by Pablo Hidalgo’s Visual Dictionary are too tantalizing to pass up. One of the Knights, “Ap’Lek”, wields a “Mandalorian Executioner Vibro-Ax” with a beskar blade. “Cardo” has a rapid-fire laser cannon attacked to his arm. “Trudgen” wields something called a “Vibrocleaver” and collects trophies of the enemies he defeats. Marvel is rolling out these characters in a comic series, but that’s not enough.
These guys need their own show! A Disney+ show featuring this group as gray heroes, or even as full-on evil warriors, would be visually stunning and allow the writers to engage with some interesting moral questions. We could find answers to questions about their origin, makeup and conquests in a medium more exciting than simply a short comic run. If Adam Driver is willing to reprise Kylo Ren that’s great, but a stand-in could easily be a masked Ren. This show needs to happen.