The fact that The Acolyte won’t return to the world of Star Wars has many downsides, but few are as painful as the story of the Stranger. Season one’s main villain, played by Manny Jacinto, was a fascinating, complex character whose views on the Force, the Jedi, and the Sith were poised to change everything we knew about Star Wars and more. And while we are now unlikely to ever see it, there was a loose, tentative plan to keep his legacy around for a long, long time.
Early next year, Abrams Books is publishing The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte by Kristin Baver, and this weekend, a few pages came to light that revealed some of Acolyte creator Leslye Headland’s plans for the character. “[The design of the mask] felt like it foreshadowed a possible connection to the Knights of Ren with the Kylo Ren shape we landed on,” Headland said. “We just started to go in that direction.”
It gets better. “It was in the design of the character, as well as knowing that we were going to introduce Darth Plagueis, who has to end up with Palpatine as his apprentice,” she continued. “Following the Rule of Two—a precept that limited the Sith to just two at any given time, a master and an apprentice—one way to keep it going is if the Stranger is the first Knight of Ren, part of a Sith-adjacent cult that we know eventually survives.”
Headland even hinted at the eventual connection by having some of John Williams’ Kylo Ren music in Michael Abels’ score for the show. “And since we never name him, you don’t know,” she said. “Does he have a first name, and then his last name is Ren? It’s a good way to nod to it without having to give away too much information.”
Of course, all the hinting in the world no longer matters because the show is done and, most likely, so is our chance to explore the character. But it does make sense. The Sith are usually few due to their evil ways, but what about other Force users that embrace the Dark Side? Wouldn’t they have someone to follow? And maybe, that was the original Knight of Ren.
You can see the images from the book in the tweet below. The book itself is out in January and can be pre-ordered here.
Here’s the page from The Art of The Acolyte book where Leslye reveals that The Stranger was supposed to be the first Knight of Ren, in HD quality.
This page and others were initially previewed at Celebration Japan and I guess no one read them too carefully lol pic.twitter.com/NxZMvXfU7T— Retney’s Holocron YouTube (@retneysholocron) October 26, 2025
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
The fact that The Acolyte won’t return to the world of Star Wars has many downsides, but few are as painful as the story of the Stranger. Season one’s main villain, played by Manny Jacinto, was a fascinating, complex character whose views on the Force, the Jedi, and the Sith were poised to change everything we knew about Star Wars and more. And while we are now unlikely to ever see it, there was a loose, tentative plan to keep his legacy around for a long, long time.
Early next year, Abrams Books is publishing The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte by Kristin Baver, and this weekend, a few pages came to light that revealed some of Acolyte creator Leslye Headland’s plans for the character. “[The design of the mask] felt like it foreshadowed a possible connection to the Knights of Ren with the Kylo Ren shape we landed on,” Headland said. “We just started to go in that direction.”
It gets better. “It was in the design of the character, as well as knowing that we were going to introduce Darth Plagueis, who has to end up with Palpatine as his apprentice,” she continued. “Following the Rule of Two—a precept that limited the Sith to just two at any given time, a master and an apprentice—one way to keep it going is if the Stranger is the first Knight of Ren, part of a Sith-adjacent cult that we know eventually survives.”
Headland even hinted at the eventual connection by having some of John Williams’ Kylo Ren music in Michael Abels’ score for the show. “And since we never name him, you don’t know,” she said. “Does he have a first name, and then his last name is Ren? It’s a good way to nod to it without having to give away too much information.”
Of course, all the hinting in the world no longer matters because the show is done and, most likely, so is our chance to explore the character. But it does make sense. The Sith are usually few due to their evil ways, but what about other Force users that embrace the Dark Side? Wouldn’t they have someone to follow? And maybe, that was the original Knight of Ren.
You can see the images from the book in the tweet below. The book itself is out in January and can be pre-ordered here.
Here’s the page from The Art of The Acolyte book where Leslye reveals that The Stranger was supposed to be the first Knight of Ren, in HD quality.
This page and others were initially previewed at Celebration Japan and I guess no one read them too carefully lol pic.twitter.com/NxZMvXfU7T— Retney’s Holocron YouTube (@retneysholocron) October 26, 2025
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
