Star Wars Fan Art Imagines Ben Solo’s First Costume With the Knights of Ren

Kylo Ren was back in the spotlight this week when readers discovered that the character wore a Han Solo-esque costume in Marvel Comics’ Star Wars: The Rise of Kylo Ren. Now, Heidi Hastings has imagined what the costume would look like as his first Knights of Ren look. The take on the homage is stunning and the brushwork deserves an extra special shout out. After that messy split with the Jedi Order, some new threads were in order, and what better way to twist the knife in your family’s collective consciousness than by adopting a dark version of your father’s gear. Will Sliney is the man behind the look in the comics, and fans have been thanking him for his work all week. It seems this one will be popular with the fan art circuit for years to come.

In other parts of the fandom though, people are still upset about how poor Ben Solo fared in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The film managed to pull in so much at the box office, but still gets hotly debated by fans online even now. Chris Terrio helped write the script, and he’s talked about why Kylo ended up how he did in the final installment.

“Kylo says ‘Kill the past,’ but remember, it’s the bad guy that’s articulating that,” Terrio reminds fans. “‘Kill the past’ is not the voice of the film. That is what any number of dictators would say. I feel that although Kylo Ren is always saying “Kill the past,” that is his blind spot. He doesn’t want to face the past. he doesn’t want to face what he’s done. He doesn’t want to betray the legacy that he’s come from in joining the Dark Side,” he said. “I even think Rian would probably take issue with the idea that ‘Kill the past’ is the voice of the director. I think you don’t write characters that way, or write characters in a meta-conversation with another film.”

Terrio went even further in defending the film. He disputes that fan reaction to The Last Jedi shaped The Rise of Skywalker. Instead, the filmmakers just chose a different tack.

“Just as anyone would have an argument as they’re leaving in the car about what should’ve happened, what they liked, what they didn’t like, of course, the creators of the next film have those same arguments about what they thought were the strongest things, what they thought was promise unfulfilled, what they thought was a good dangling plot thread that could be picked up,” Terrio continued. “Of course we hear the reaction of fans, but the objective of this movie wasn’t to amalgamate all the fan opinions and then take a vote on what should happen. It was to go in a direction that J.J. thought could come to a really surprising and satisfying ending.”