One question Star Wars fans have is "who is Kylo Ren?" Ever since the new character first appeared in the trailer, everyone wants to know more. In an interview with Empire, director JJ Abrams revealed more about the character, including who he is, which isn't a Sith.

"Kylo Ren is not a Sith. He works under Supreme Leader Snoke, who is a powerful figure on the Dark Side of the Force.”

Where did this idea come from? Abrams went on to explain Ren and the First Order's role in the upcoming film.

“That all came out of conversations about what would have happened if the Nazis all went to Argentina but then started working together again? What could be born of that? Could The First Order exist as a group that actually admired The Empire? Could the work of The Empire be seen as unfulfilled? And could Vader be a martyr? Could there be a need to see through what didn’t get done?”

Star Wars: The Force Awakens opens up on December 18, 2015.

The fact that the "Sith" aren't mentioned makes me happy :)

Also I like the explanation about the "First Order".

Wow, this really is interesting. Lucasfilm is doing a good job giving clues and stuff and still remaining quiet about their characters.

My only hope is thar Rey is the true protagonist of the film.

So if he's not a Sith, will there be any? Rule of Two and all that. Maybe the Sith have gone into hiding and will be more important in later episodes

Like the Sith but after Darth Krayt debuted its been hard to be interested in any of Dark Side using after One Sith.

Excellent. I'm happy with JJ Abrams and the way he has seen things.

Interesting. I wonder if they're delving into the topic of grey jedi as embodied by Imperial Knights.

I'm still waiting on them to explain why the Rebel Alliance had to be recast as the generically named Resistance.

@golden_cod: Maybe they thought "Rebel Alliance" tied too closely to the Confederacy.

So a Dark Jedi rather than a Sith then?

"Kylo Ren is not a Sith. He works under Supreme Leader Snoke, who is a powerful figure on the Dark Side of the Force.”

Kylo works under a powerful figure on the Dark Side of the Force...... I think he qualifies as a Sith then.

Probably like the cult of Revan neither sith nor jedi.

Snoke. What kind of innocuous name is this for the new ultimate villain?

as long as there is no midichlorians and jajar bings, i'm happy

Wait so shouldn't he have an orange lightsaber ? since that represents no side and being in a cult

I think the Knights of Ren to which Kylo Ren belongs to are more Dark Jedi than Grey Jedi personally. And even though I was uninspired by Abbrams' take on Star Trek, it's clear Star Wars is where his heart and passion has always led. That was apparent in the special effects and action tone of Star Trek. I like what I'm hearing thus far, hopefully this new trilogy can combine the modern day special effects and action with the story, character building and sense of fantasy and adventure of the original trilogy.

So the difference between a Sith and a Dark Jedi is a Sith isn't stupid enough to use a lightsaber where the hilt guard will cut off their hand?

Though plausible due to the first trilogy's time period (Galactic Civil War) I doubt that's the case. There'd be more political controversy if a lot people made that association. Plus the prequel trilogy's antagonists, the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS) lends more readily to the analogy.

@dragonborn_ct: Fear Snokey the Terrible!

This is very interesting, color me impressed. So, is Supreme Leader Snoke suspected to be a Force user?

@dragonborn_ct: yea because Jabba was soo more fearsome as a huge leader

@doctor_edit: @dragonborn_ct: yea because Jabba was soo more fearsome as a huge leade! also the might bounty hunter....Boba

So what is Ren, and what is Snoke? If not Sith. That makes me presume that Ren may not be as powerful as I hoped.

So either a) He's a Dark Jedi OR (more plausible to me considering plot threads from Rebles) he's an Inquisitor and thus profficient in the dark side but not living by the code of the sith (which kinda makes sense as there would have been some inquisitors left in the universe after vader and the emperors death, and so that order just kept on going while the sith "rule of 2" order died out).
I also read (from anther site) that Kylo Ren is a huge vader fanatic, following the whole Vader marter idea, beliving Vader to be a "heroic" figure before his time (ren being born after the events of RoJ) and even modeled his mask after vader (possibly the idea of a darkside warrior who hid his face), so it is an idea that i really like.
Going by the changing name of "the resistance" it could be that what we know of as the rebel allience did end up forming a new galactic republic and that the resistence is just an off-shot organization which formed to fight against the first order... or i could just be making stuff up :P

also when i first read this article i read Snokey as Snorkey adn just kept on thinking of a snork in an imperial uniform... :P

except in Star Wars a new hope it is said only vader and obi one were all that remained of that religion ;)

Not necessarily. The Sith are a specific cult of force users with their own culture, not every Darksider is a Sith.

After learning this I am really interested to know what happened to the Jedi and Sith around the time of the movie.

Nope, none of that stuff is canon anymore.

Darth Revan?