Episode IX will feature the climax of the battle between Jedi and Sith

The only time the Knights of Ren, an elite order of warriers fighting for the First Order, have been seen in the Star Wars sequel trilogy was in The Force Awakens. In that film, Rey touches the hilt of Luke Skywalker’s old lightsaber at Maz Kanata’s castle and has what Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kenedy dubbed a “Forceback” vision, where she saw the Knights. Even then, they were shrouded in darkness and a torrential downpour.

Well, they’re coming back in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Vanity Fair has a splashy cover story on the final movie in the Skywalker saga, and includes a photo of J.J. Abrams directing the knights in the desert:

There’s no real information about the Knights of Ren, especially seeing as how they made no appearance in The Last Jedi, but what we do know is Kylo Ren is their master. They might be former students of Luke Skywalker, seeing as he told Rey about Ben Solo’s turn to the Dark Side in a flashback: “The temple was burning. He had vanished with a handful of my students . . . and slaughtered the rest.”

If the Knights of Ren are, in fact, former Jedi students, then they’ve probably got some latent Force abilities. That would make them even more dangerous than they already seem. I mean, just look at them: that one guy has a freaking gun arm!

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Going wider, according to a source on the film, The Rise of Skywalker will “at long last bring to a climax the millennia-long conflict between the Jedi Order and its dark shadow, the Sith.” With Rey being the only living Jedi that we know of by the end of the aptly named The Last Jedi, it’s hard to imagine where she’ll find help to take on Kylo and his Knights of Ren, as well as the full power of the First Order.

“This trilogy is about this young generation, this new generation, having to deal with all the debt that has come before,” Director J.J. Abrams said. “And it’s the sins of the father, and it’s the wisdom and the accomplishments of those who did great things, but it’s also those who committed atrocities, and the idea that this group is up against this unspeakable evil and are they prepared? Are they ready? What have they learned from before?”

"It’s less about grandeur. It’s less about restoring an old age. It’s more about preserving a sense of freedom and not being one of the oppressed."

The Resistance is on its last legs and heading for the Outer Rim where Leia Organa tells them they still have friends. One of those friends will be Lando Calrissian, an original trilogy character played by the 82-year-old Billy Dee Williams. Of course, Chewbacca, R2, C-3PO, BB-8, Poe and Finn will all be helping Rey and the Resistance try to overcome the First Order’s bid to conquer the galaxy.

Speaking of Leia, Abrams decided to use footage from The Force Awakens to make sure the late Carrie Fisher was included in The Rise of Skywalker. However, his first thought was to remove Fisher’s daughter Billie Lourd (Lieutenant Connix) from the scenes they shared because he thought it would be too painful for Lourd to see, but she asked the director to put her back in.

“There are moments where they’re talking; there are moments where they’re touching. There are moments in this movie where Carrie is there, and I really do feel there is an element of the uncanny, spiritual, you know, classic Carrie, that it would have happened this way, because somehow it worked,” Abrams said.

Abrams explained why he used unused footage of Fisher in Episode IX as opposed to recasting Leia or digitally placing her likeness on another actress. “It was impossible, there was no way. You don’t recast that part, and you don’t have her disappear. Using CGI was out of the question.”

"There was actually a way to use those scenes to continue her story. And the crazy thing is, every day it hits me that she’s not here, but it’s so surreal because we’re working with her in scenes. She is alive in these scenes, and in some with Billie, her daughter. Princess Leia lives in this film in a way that is mind-blowing to me."

New faces include a tiny one-wheeled droid called D-O, who will apparently annoy BB-8; a large “banana-slug alien” named Klaud; Naomi Ackie as Jannah; Keri Russell as a scoundrel named Zorri Bliss; and Richard E. Grant as Allegiant General Pryde of the First Order. Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker will be there too, although we don’t in what capacity…Force Ghost maybe?

The fact that Luke’s robotic hand is gloved in the above photo means this isn’t the “Forceback” Rey saw in The Force Awakens, as that hand was ungloved. And since he’s standing next to R2-D2 and not silhouetted in shimmering blue, it doesn’t appear Luke is a Force Ghost, either. Is it possible Luke can return to the land of the living to help Rey defeat Supreme Leader Kylo Ren?

Just like Luke told Leia in The Last Jedi: “No one’s ever really gone.” We’ll have to wait for answers until December 20, when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters.

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