Interviewed for The Art of the Acolyte, out 13th January 2026, Leslye Headland delved into the plans for The Stranger, revealing that not only was he not destined to be a Sith, he was something potentially far more interesting – he would have been the very first Knight of Ren, kicking off a Sith-adjacent cult that wouldn’t have disturbed the Rule of Two that as we know sees Darth Plagueis and later Darth Sidious take their own apprentices as they plot the destruction of the Republic and the Jedi.
“It was in the design of the character, as well as knowing that we were going to introduce Darth Plagueis, who has to end up with Palpatine as his apprentice. Following the Rule of Two — a precept that limited the Sith to just two at any given time, a master and an apprentice — one way to keep it going is if the Stranger is the first Knight of Ren, part of a Sith-adjacent cult that we know eventually survives.”
We’ll be reviewing the book when it arrives, and shall certainly be discussing this topic on an upcoming episode of Making Tracks.
