'Rise of Skywalker' Leaks: New Star Wars Comic May Confirm Kylo Redemption

We’ve still got a few months to go before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker finally hits theaters, but in the meantime, Disney is keeping fans busy with a series of comic books meant to fill in some key backstories. We already learned about Poe Dameron and General Hux, but a new Snoke-focused comic details the Supreme Leader’s early relationship with Kylo Ren, and it may contain a big clue about Episode IX.

Warning: Speculative Rise of Skywalker spoilers and full spoilers for the Snoke comic below.

A preview released last week showed Snoke and Kylo visiting Dagobah (the swamp planet where Yoda trained Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back). However, now that the comic is finally out, we know exactly what happened to Ben Solo when he entered the “Cave of Evil” — and it’s even wilder than we expected.

In the “Cave of Evil,” Kylo/Ben confronts a vision of Luke Skywalker and fights his old Jedi master at Snoke’s direction. Then he comes face-to-face with his parents, Han Solo and Leia Organa. Again, Snoke pushes his student to kill, but Kylo refuses. Instead, he destroys the entire cave, ensuring that no future Sith or Jedi can use it to complete their own training.

What does this mean? Well, perhaps it’s proof that Kylo Ren isn’t a lost cause after all. He may have killed Han in The Force Awakens, but with Leia set to appear in The Rise of Skywalker, there’s a chance for Kylo to redeem himself. At the very least, we know that Kylo’s turn to the Dark side was never truly completed. So there’s still hope for Ben Solo.

We still don’t know much about Kylo’s arc in The Rise of Skywalker, but a large contingent of fans are hoping that the character will redeem himself. There’s even a hashtag for it: #Bendemption.

Whether that means Kylo will die while doing what’s right (like his grandfather Darth Vader) or somehow survive through the end of The Rise of Skywalker remains to be seen. But based on this new comic, there’s reason to believe that Snoke wasn’t able to snuff out all the good in Kylo Ren after all.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20.