Exclusive! Who Formed The Knights Of Ren? Spoilers!

Kylo Ren uses the Force to perfect Michael Jackon's Smooth Criminal "lean dance"

Hot on the heels of JJ Abrams' Entertainment Weekly interview discussing Kylo Ren's name being a title - based on his involvement with the Knights of Ren - comes our spy source revealing damned near everything about this new Star Wars Knighthood.  More after the jump.

"None shall pass!  The Black Knight always triumphs!"

First off, let's get it out of the way: The Knights of Ren are NOT Sith.  The Knights of Ren were established as an extension of the Jedi Knights.  You might be surprised to learn that the Ren Order was set up post-ROTJ and (stop reading if you wish to remain spoiler-free of a major plot point in The Force Awakens)...

... last warning...

... ok, here's the biggest hint at where he's been for 30 years:  Luke Skywalker is the founder of the Knights of Ren.  Luke, post-Jedi has been trying to restore the concept of the Jedi Order.  Now this isn't far off from the EU stories with Luke seeking out new Jedi and building a new Jedi temple to study in.  I think it is safe to assume many of us thought Luke would be using his Jedi powers to try and uphold the galaxy.

Jedi Master of Photoshop

The story, from the pieces we have learned, looks that Luke founded the order, wanting to distinguish it from the original Jedi Order because he knows he was never fully trained and doesn't know all of the old traditions and practices.  He has been doing his best to learn everything the Jedi stood for and build a new system of galactic overseeing based on his refined learnings.

Kylo Ren with backup dancers for new
Jabba's palace song number.

Kylo's story echo's Darth Vader's in more than one as here. He was a pupil of Luke's before the Knights of Ren were disbanded and Luke was force to flee into hiding.  Why?  It seems that Kylo's dark side obsession started early and he climbed the ranks of the knights to become Luke's greatest student.  Kylo positioned a deal with the First Order that if he could deliver Luke, dead or alive, he would be given control of a fleet for his own purposes.  His plan was to kill the other knights (six of them making Kylo the last of the "seven") and capture Luke.  Luke managed to escape but the others were slaughtered.  Fearing the worst, Luke has been in hiding, awaiting the right moment to strike. This is the perfect parallel to Obi-Wan in A New Hope hiding on Tatooine awaiting the right moment when Luke ventures back into his life with Threepio and R2.

Something blue, something borrowed.

Kylo's obsession picks up in the movie with finding Luke/Anakin's lightsaber because of the crystal inside it which is force-linked to Luke and will reveal his whereabouts.  This has long been rumored and lines up perfectly with what we have learned in the last few days.

Grandma Maz at the pawn shop with Luke's kyber crystal.

It appears, reaching just a little here, that Rey will be "the new hope" of this trilogy, finding Luke first and summoning his courage and wisdom to put an end to Kylo's reign of terror once and for all.