Star Wars: Episode IX Leak Hints That Kylo Ren Is Getting a New Weapon

Star Wars Episode IX is currently shooting and is expected to enter post-production on schedule, but so little is known about the highly-anticipated film that any and all rumors are still very much on the table. Though all speculation should be taken with a grain of salt at this point, those with even an air of believability seem to be making headlines for possible consideration.

The latest rumor to leak out of the ongoing production is from ​Express, which details the possibility of a new weapon being wielded by Kylo Ren:

Specifically, a description of Kylo Ren inside his throne room, assumed to be ​the headquarters of the First Order, viewing a hologram [from] a device held in his hand. Kylo appears to be examining three large superweapons that are in a cylindrical shape with an enormous engine on each side of each superweapon of this ship/weapon, destroying terrain on a planet. The engine burner is colored red and the blast from the bottom of these three massive weapons is colored blue, impacting a surface causing astronomical destruction. Parts of the weapon seem to be under construction and not finished.

Fans have already voiced speculation that these superweapons are, in fact, World Devastators—weapons that were employed in the now-defunct Star Wars Legends comics.

In their original form, World Devastators could harness a planet's natural resources with a tractor beam while simultaneously disrupting its topography, devastating a planet's structure while whoever pilots the World Devastator makes off with anything of value.

Even if the leak is true, and the reported superweapon isn't a World Devastator, it does make sense that Kylo would have a new big toy with which to blow things up. Episode IX is being directed by J.J. Abrams, who also directed The Force Awakens. One of the major criticisms of The Force Awakens was that it was a beat-for-beat retread of A New Hope, which was forgivable at the time to prove that the franchise could recover from the horrible prequel films.

If Abrams continues on the path he set for himself with The Force Awakens, then ​Episode IX should be at least tangentially similar to the final film in the original trilogy, Return of the Jedi, wherein the villainous Emperor Palpatine was in the process of rebuilding his old superweapon, the Death Star.