Star Wars: Is this trailer for a Knights of Ren TV show the real deal?

The Knights of Ren are a group of masked, Force-sensitive warriors working for Kylo Ren. First introduced in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, fans immediately embraced the grimdark Knights of Ren, even though they didn’t have much to do in the movie. By the time The Rise of Skywalker rolled around, some fans had built up the Knights so much in their heads that they were disappointed when the group was quickly disposed of. Something about these guys took hold of fans’ imaginations, and they’ve never stopped wanting to learn more.

And now, it looks like Disney may grant their wish. There’s a trailer flying around the internet right now for a Knights of Ren movie/show, called Knights of Ren: A Star Wars Story. We’re not going to embed it here for fear that the House of Mouse will sue us out of existence, but you can watch it here.

Now, this sets off some alarm bells, because Disney has so far refrained from making many spinoffs featuring characters from the Star Wars sequel trilogy, even as they give us tons of stuff related to the original movies and the prequels.

Knights of Ren: A Star Wars Story

So is the trailer a fake? Maybe, but if so it’s easily the most convincing fake trailer I’ve ever seen. It shows one of the Knights of Ren (who looks a lot like the Witch King from The Lord of the Rings, it must be said) leaping from a TIE Fighter onto an X-Wing and taking it down in mid-air. We get an inversion of Yoda’s popular saying from the prequels: “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to…power.” You were so close.

The whole thing is extremely well-done, from the special effects to the editing to the sound mix. It even looks like the trailer is being filmed with a shaky camera in a screening room somewhere. If this is fake, serious kudos are due to whoever made it.

So it certainly looks real…but a show unironically celebrating villains who lust after power does seem a little hardcore for Disney, who wants to keep their Star Wars offerings as family-friendly as possible. It’s also odd that the trailer has the subtitle “A Star Wars Story,” which is something Disney has reserved for movies, AND the Disney+ logo at the end, implying that this is a TV series.

But hey, maybe Disney is mixing things up. What do you all make of it?

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