New Image, Details for Kylo Ren in ‘STAR WARS: The Rise of Skywalker’

[Warning: Possible spoilers for Star Wars: Episode IX ahead.] We know Kylo Ren will feature heavily in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In the teaser trailer we saw Ren charging through a forest with First Order Stormtroopers… but we also saw something far more interesting. For a fleeting moment, we witnessed someone, or something, repairing the would-be Sith’s mask. Now we have more information on the repairs, and a better, official look at the end product.

Earlier this week Twitter user @trcoot attended a licensing expo at which Disney featured promo materials for its franchises. Among them was a full image of Kylo Ren donning his newly repaired mask. Now, there’s been speculation as to whether or not it would actually be Ren wearing the mask.

Here is an enlarged view:

This image, plus the trailer and the image of him battling Rey from the recent Vanity Fair article, seem to confirm that it is indeed Kylo Ren wearing the repaired mask.

Evolution of the Kylo Ren Mask

As you’ll recall, Ren smashed his helmet to smithereens in The Last Jedi as see above. The film gave no indication that Kylo Ren retrieved the debris. That only fueled speculation that someone else would wear it in The Rise of Skywalker. The next time we saw it was in the teaser trailer, which depicted a pair of sinewy, gray, hairy hands making the repairs.

Finally, we see Kylo Ren wearing the mask and wielding his cross-hilt lightsaber in the new promo materials. Beyond that, we know very little about why he would repair the mask and wear it again for the final film of the Skywalker saga. We might have some insight, however, from an earlier report from Making Star Wars.  

Kylo Ren and the Knights of Ren are rumored to travel to a “creepy castle” that serves as the home for an “ape man” who agrees to aid Ren and his Knights in their endeavors. In doing so, this ape man not only repairs the mask, but also activates a device that they’ll need. Again, there’s no official news on this subject or what the device might be. My guess, and this is purely speculation, is that the device may very well be a Sith Holocron.

For now, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens with Kylo Ren. San Diego Comic-Con begins July 18. Perhaps we’ll get more behind the scenes footage, or even a full trailer for The Rise of Skywalker, then.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker opens in theaters December 20.

Sources: Twitter; Making Star Wars