Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker could have hundreds of Sith troopers as part of the First Order’s battalion. The Skywalker saga, which began with the first Star Wars film in 1977, is coming to an end with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the third installment in the sequel trilogy that brought back characters from the original trilogy and introduced new ones as well. The film has J.J Abrams back as director and reunites Rey (Daisy Ridley), Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), Finn (John Boyega), Poe Dameron (Oscar Isaac), and Rose Tico (Kelly Marie Tran) for one last adventure in a galaxy far, far away.
Plot details are still a mystery, but Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is set a year after the events in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, following what’s left of the Resistance and their battle against the First Order, all while the legendary Jedi/Sith conflict reaches its peak. The trailers have done a good job in not sharing too much about the story, but the same can’t be said about merchandise, as one piece confirmed that the First Order has a battalion of Sith troopers.
A t-shirt shared by the official Star Wars blog (and later deleted) shows that the First Order's Sith troopers are part of battalion, meaning that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker could feature hundreds of Sith troopers. Battalions in Star Wars canon are large military units of ground troops, and they can have multiple companies. In the Stormtrooper Corps, for example, a battalion has four companies, so in total it has 800 Stormtroopers. Taking it a step further, a regiment has four Imperial battalions, making it a total of 3200 Stormtroopers. Even if the First Order doesn’t take it that far, having a battalion means that Kylo Ren has hundreds of Sith troopers, and that can be quite dangerous.
Battalions have mostly appeared in Star Wars: The Clone Wars but they also showed up in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, as well as in the novelization of The Last Jedi and the prequel novel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. With the Resistance still fighting against the First Order, it’s not surprising that the latter will bring out their big armies, and the consequences can be truly horrible, especially because the Resistance has a couple of the most beloved characters from the sequel trilogy.
With characters such as Lando Calrissian and Palpatine/Darth Sidious coming back, and the addition of battalions, it all points at Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker being a conclusion to the saga that fans will be satisfied with, especially after the reaction of most to The Last Jedi and Solo: A Star Wars Story. It’s only a matter of waiting to see how all these characters and elements will work and influence each other.
