Star Wars: Knights of Ren Actors Reveal Major Costume Problems in ‘Rise of Skywalker’

Adam Driver has proven to be a leading man of commanding stature – but apparently that stature was a bit too commanding for the makers of Star Wars. THS attended London Comic-Con Spring, where the actors who played The Knights of Ren in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy finale The Rise of Skywalker (Ashley Beck, Martin Wilde, Joe Kennard, Anton Simpson Tidy, Tom Rodgers, Lukaz Leong) were featured in a panel. That panel revealed some interesting behind-the-scenes anecdotes about how The Knights of Ren were created for the screen – including the story about how Adam Driver’s height became a real problem for the costume department!

Here’s what THS reporter Katie Lambert shared, while attending the Knights of Ren panel at London Comic-Con Spring:

“It was great to see the faces behind the masks and hear the behind the scenes stories. Hearing the actors talk about the experiences they had whilst filming really does make you look at the films in a new light. A great fact was that the Knights of Ren were all slightly shorter then Adam Driver and had to wear higher shoes in order to match his height. They also had to avoid any injury to Adam Driver during the fight scenes.”

Suddenly, that badass and menacing group of warriors doesn’t seem so badass and menacing, right? It’s a funny little insight about the process of movie magic, as tricks to balance out things like height are commonplace in the industry. Ironically, director Martin Scorsese had to employ quite a few of the same tricks to make his “prestige” gangster film, The Irishman. Adam Driver is uniquely tall (6′ 2.5″) as far as actors go, so it’s not surprising that some lifts were needed to make the Knights of Ren look as menacing as their leader, Kylo. However, as Lambert further reported, the costume problems didn’t end there for The Knights of Ren:

“There was a lot of talk about the costumes too. They might look SUPER impressive but in reality, they proved rather problematic. Not only were the costumes unbearably hot whilst filming in Jordan, but the lenses on the helmets kept steaming up which limited visibility. The actors even had to wear ice vests between takes to keep cool. I think this just shows the lengths that these guys went to in order to produce the stunning sequences you see on screen. (And let’s face it, those fight scenes featuring the Knights were visually spectacular.)”

She ended by saying the Knights of Ren actors have actually bonded and are great to see together, and their characters would be great in future Star Wars stories. We couldn’t agree more.

Star Wars continues with The Clone Wars season 7 airing on Disney+ each week. “The High Republic” line of books and comics is (was?) scheduled for this summer.