Star Wars fans were given an unexpected trailer this week when a supposedly leaked trailer for the Knights of Ren appeared and was quickly shared online. While some were quick to call out the trailer as fake, others were left considering how credible the whole thing was, despite the image being very unsteady and appearing to be recorded on a jittery camera phone in a theater. However, Star Wars creative executive Pablo Hidalgo responded to a story about the footage with a comment that left no doubt the trailer was indeed fake.
In response to a Forbes headline, Hidalgo noted that he cannot understand how faked trailer videos always appear to be unsteady, as it isn’t hard for someone to hold phone straight. While his comments stopped short of calling out the leak as fan-made, he clearly wasn’t suggesting that it is an actual trailer for an upcoming Star Wars project. You can see his comments below.
The original post by @djclulow purposely used the Forbes story to highlight that the headline came from a reputable site and not from a shady social media account. The whole thing goes to prove once again that increases in technology and the availability of movie quality video editing software in particular can render results that could easily be seen on the big screen. If not for that persistent, shaky “found-footage” style of leak.
Knights of Ren “Trailer” Is Impressive Enough To Fool Many People
In the run-up to Spider-Man: No Way Home, any number of fan-made trailers appeared on YouTube, Twitter and TikTok accounts, all reported “official” looks at the highly anticipated Marvel movie. However, even the best of them just had that something about them that smacked of artifice and when the genuine trailer did arrive, and all subsequent ones after it, it was clear which was the real thing and which ones had just tried very hard.
This latest fake trailer took aim at a Star Wars wish list entry, and had a lot of fans questioning whether the short video was actually a fake at all. The opening title cards and the LucasFilm tags are all exactly as you would expect in an official Star Wars project, a well-known voiceover ties into The Force Awakens, the footage of a black-clad figure leaping from a TIE Fighter and onto an X-wing before slicing the spacecraft with a lightsaber is almost as perfectly cinematic as you can get, and the end title reveal even has the “A Star Wars Story” subtitle perfectly in place. As many pointed out, fake trailers don’t get any better, but there is no doubt that it is still just a fake trailer.
The Knights of Ren made their namedrop debut in Star Wars: The Force Awakens as well as appearing in visions before making their first proper appearance in The Rise of Skywalker. However, their general use in the movies was thought to be wasted by many fans, and while the comics have since expanded on their history, fans still want to see more of them on screen. Apparently, someone decided to put together their own amazing, but still fake, teaser and let the internet just image the possibilities.