‘The Acolyte’ Had a Fascinating Plan to Hyperlink the Stranger to Kylo Ren

The truth that The Acolyte won’t return to the world of Star Wars has many downsides, however few are as painful because the story of the Stranger. Season one’s most important villain, played by Manny Jacinto, was an enchanting, advanced character whose views on the Force, the Jedi, and the Sith have been poised to alter the whole lot we knew about Star Wars and extra. And whereas we at the moment are unlikely to ever see it, there was a free, tentative plan to maintain his legacy round for an extended, very long time.

Early subsequent yr, Abrams Books is publishing The Artwork of Star Wars: The Acolyte by Kristin Baver, and this weekend, a few pages came to light that exposed a few of Acolyte creator Leslye Headland’s plans for the character. “[The design of the mask] felt prefer it foreshadowed a doable connection to the Knights of Ren with the Kylo Ren form we landed on,” Headland mentioned. “We simply began to go in that route.”

It will get higher. “It was within the design of the character, in addition to realizing that we have been going to introduce Darth Plagueis, who has to finish up with Palpatine as his apprentice,” she continued. “Following the Rule of Two—a principle that restricted the Sith to simply two at any given time, a grasp and an apprentice—one method to maintain it going is that if the Stranger is the primary Knight of Ren, a part of a Sith-adjacent cult that we all know finally survives.”

Headland even hinted on the eventual connection by having a few of John Williams’ Kylo Ren music in Michael Abels’ rating for the present. “And since we by no means title him, you don’t know,” she mentioned. “Does he have a primary title, after which his final title is Ren? It’s a great way to nod to it with out having to offer away an excessive amount of data.”

After all, all of the hinting on this planet now not issues as a result of the present is finished and, most certainly, so is our likelihood to discover the character. But it surely does make sense. The Sith are often few attributable to their evil methods, however what about different Power customers that embrace the Darkish Aspect? Wouldn’t they’ve somebody to observe? And perhaps, that was the unique Knight of Ren.

You may see the photographs from the guide within the tweet beneath. The guide itself is out in January and can be pre-ordered here.

Here is the web page from The Artwork of The Acolyte guide the place Leslye reveals that The Stranger was speculated to be the primary Knight of Ren, in HD high quality.
This web page and others have been initially previewed at Celebration Japan and I assume nobody learn them too rigorously lol pic.twitter.com/NxZMvXfU7T

— Retney’s Holocron YouTube (@retneysholocron) October 26, 2025

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