Warning! Spoilers ahead for Crimson Reign #1

In Marvel Comics' new Crimson Reign series, the Knights of Ren are proving that Snoke was wasted in Star Wars' sequel trilogy. Serving as their earliest appearance in the Star Wars timeline, the Knights of Ren have allied themselves with the reborn Crimson Dawn in this new issue before the events of Return of the Jedi. As such, new details are being revealed about this first iteration of the group years before Ben Solo was even born to one day become their leader as Kylo Ren. Furthermore, their status as dark side users who aren't Sith prove that Snoke could have been so much more.

In Star Wars' sequel trilogySnoke was revealed to be the Supreme Leader of the First Order, an army built out of the remnants of the Empire years after its collapse. Having corrupted Ben Solo to the dark side of the Force to become Kylo Ren, it seemed as though Snoke was being set up in The Force Awakens to be an imposing dark side user to rival Emperor Palpatine himself. However, Snoke's sudden and controversial death in The Last Jedi, followed by the reveal that he was a creation of the Emperor in Rise of Skywalker, made him no more than a simple footnote in the story of Palpatine's return to regain control of the galaxy.

Related: Star Wars: Every Major Character Revealed To Be Part of Crimson Dawn

However, Crimson Reign #1 from writer Charles Soule and artist Steven Cummings further confirms that the Knights of Ren are Force users (referring to the dark side as "touching the Shadow"), originally operating outside of the Sith's control. Further fleshing out some of the reveals made in Soule's previous 2019 series The Rise of Kylo Ren, this new issue sees the Knights working with Crimson Dawn's Lady Qi'ra due to their willingness to defy the Sith Lords Palpatine and Darth Vader. However, they would end up being led by Kylo, whose master was Snoke... but really Palpatine in secret. As a result, it feels as though Star Wars wasted the opportunity where a new dark side threat could have risen to replace the Sith had Snoke been his own being apart from the Emperor.

Knights-Of-Ren-Crimson-Reign

The idea that the Knights of Ren were dark side users who weren't Sith isn't really a concept that was translated well in the films, but there could have been some interesting narrative possibilities had the movies decided to hone in on that idea with Snoke being his own being in the dark side of the Force (leading them through Kylo). Not only could the Sith have been well and truly defeated by the heroes of the original trilogy, but the Knights and Snoke could have risen as a wholly new threat to rival the Sith Lords, rather than being less interesting extensions of the resurrected Emperor.

Seeing as how the Knights operate as a group, they clearly didn't hold to the same mandates and philosophies of the Sith such as the Rule of Two, where there could only be one master and one apprentice. As featured in Crimson Reign #1, the Knights of Ren have their own personality and methodologies apart from the ways of the Sith. Combined with what Snoke could have been, it certainly feels as though Star Wars could have offered a much more dynamic threat for the sequel trilogy that would have been new and fresh while still being evocative of the Sith through their use of the dark side while being led by Darth Vader's grandson.

More: Star Wars: How Snoke Turned Kylo Ren To The Dark Side Revealed