Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Theory - Is THIS Where The Knights Of Ren Have Been?

1. Will They Survive The Movie?

Should fans expect to see the Knights of Ren live to fight another day? There are at least six of them, after all. Nevertheless, it's a tough one to answer, so let's consider all the angles.

Above all else, there's clear narrative merit in allowing at least some of the Knights to escape the end of the movie with their lives, as the potential alone for a Disney+ spin-off series speaks for itself.

But it's also relatively unlikely that The Rise of Skywalker is going to spend much time developing the Knights as distinct characters.

Therefore, it's easy to believe they'll basically follow a similar trajectory to Thanos' children in the last two Avengers movies: they'll get a decent-ish amount of screen time with a handful of cool action beats, but end up thoroughly bested by film's end.

If they're ultimately Palpatine's goons, then they're likely all going down by Kylo's hand, as that first trailer seemed to suggest. Similarly, if they (somehow) turn out to be clones of Rey or anyone else, it's tough to imagine J.J. Abrams allowing them to live on.

While the idea of leaving narrative threads dangling is certainly appealing, the supposed "finality" of this movie makes it decidedly more likely the Knights will have their arcs tied off by the end.

But as ever, you can trust Abrams to put his beloved mystery box to good use and surprise us all.