'Rise of Skywalker' leaks tease showdown between [spoiler] & Knights of Ren

After four long years, we’re bound to finally meet the Knights of Ren when Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker arrives this December, and if a new leak is correct, then who they fight in one spectacular scene late in the movie will come as a total surprise to fans.

In a new batch of leaks shared to the r/StarWarsLeaks subreddit over the weekend by redditor u/JediPaxis, they summarize each major plot beat in the third act of the movie based on their own sources.

Potential spoilers follow for The Rise of Skywalker based on supposed leaks, which may or may not be true.

If details about the Knights of Ren are true, then it isn’t Rey who defeats them. It’s Ben Solo.

In Jedi Praxis’ “Act II” batch of leaks, Rey defeats Kylo Ren in a lightsaber duel at the end of the second act aboard the wreckage of the second Death Star on the moon of Endor. Narrowly escaping death, Kylo Ren is visited by his father, Han Solo, who claims that it’s never too late for him to do the right thing. (Han appearing as a Force ghost doesn’t make sense, but let’s just roll with it.) Discarding his red lightsaber and the identity of Kylo Ren, Ben Solo walks away from the wreckage of the second Death Star a new man, a redeemed hero that needs to help Rey follow the path of Light.

Throughout the earlier parts of the film, the Knights of Ren do Ben Solo’s bidding, but what happens next is truly exciting.

Kylo Ren “leave[s] the wreckage of the Death Star and his former persona behind and travel to [Planet] Exogol with the purpose of joining Rey to help her face down Sidious,” Jedi Paxis writes. “When he arrives on the planet, he encounters the Knights of Ren who are guarding the entrance to the arena where Rey and Sidious are. Ben reportedly dispatches each of them using only the Force.”

Without a lightsaber or even a blaster, Ben Solo faces down six (or more?) elite warriors who can each probably wield the Force themselves. (Some or all Knights of Ren could be Luke Skywalker’s former students as well.) Using only Force powers, Ben is able to defeat them. Surely, he’ll kill individual Knights and take their weapons, similar to how he fought alongside Rey in The Last Jedi against Snoke’s Praetorian red guard.

At one point, Kylo wielded his lightsaber and some kind of halberd at the same time. We’ll probably see awesome surprises like that in this Knights of Ren fight as well.

Specific details about this choreography are obviously sparse, but each Knight of Ren seemingly fights with a unique weapon based on what we’ve seen before. Empire published a new image of the Knights of Ren over the weekend, and one of them has some kind of rifle. In a behind the scenes photo, another has a gun arm, while the others wield different melee weapons like axes, maces, and swords of different sizes.

When confronting Palpatine in the final battle, Ben wields the refurbished version of the blue Skywalker lightsaber while Rey has one that previously belonged to Leia. This exciting turn of events is short-lived, however, because in a crucial final scene, Palpatine kills Ben Solo, leaving Rey to save the day on her own.

There’s no way for us to know if these details are accurate, or how much might change in the rumored reshoots that have been ongoing. But if this particular detail about Kylo Ren’s redemption and fight against the Knights of Ren are true, then it could make for one of the coolest fight sequences in Star Wars history.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will be released December 20, 2019.

Here’s the full post from Jedi Paxis: