THE ACOLYTE Almost Connected the Stranger to Kylo Ren in a Brilliant Way
The cancellation of The Acolyte might have closed the door on one of the more unique Star Wars stories from Disney and Lucasfilm, and one of the biggest missed opportunities lies in the mystery surrounding Manny Jacinto’s character, the Stranger.
He was introduced as a complex, unpredictable villain whose ideas about the Force, the Jedi, and the Sith were setting up something special.
Now, thanks to some new details revealed from the upcoming book The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte by Kristin Baver, we know just how big those plans really were, and how they might’ve tied directly into Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren.
In newly surfaced pages from the art book, The Acolyte creator Leslye Headland revealed that the Stranger’s design and storyline were meant to tease a connection to the dark warriors who would one day follow Kylo Ren.
“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 explained. “We just started to go in that direction.”
That direction wasn’t just visual. Headland went on to explain how the Stranger was part of a broader plan to expand on Sith mythology and the Rule of Two.
“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 said.
“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.”
That’s a fascinating idea, the Stranger as the origin point for the Knights of Ren, existing outside the traditional Sith hierarchy but still carrying forward the Dark Side legacy.
Headland even slipped in subtle musical nods to tie things together. “And since we never name him, you don’t know,” she teased. “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.”
It’s the kind of deep-cut connection Star Wars fans love to theorize about. The Sith are always limited by their own code, but the galaxy is full of Dark Side users with no allegiance to that rule.
The idea that the Stranger could’ve been the spark that led to the formation of the Knights of Ren adds a whole new layer to Star Wars history, unfortunately for fans of the series, it’s one we may never get to see play out on screen.
The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte will be released in January and can be pre-ordered now. The book includes new concept art and behind-the-scenes insights from the series that could’ve changed everything we thought we knew about the Dark Side.