The Praetorian Guard, also known by the names Imperial Praetorian Guard and later Elite Praetorian Guard, were the premier crimson-armored soldiers serving the successor states of the Galactic Empire: the Shadow Council and the First Order. These guards were an advanced version of the Emperor's Royal Guard, and they were equipped with crimson plastoid armor enhanced with mag-coils designed to deflect incoming blaster bolts.
Within the First Order, the Praetorian Guard was composed of eight exceptionally skilled elite personal bodyguards responsible for the safety of the Supreme Leader, Snoke. Donning red armor and robes, reminiscent of the Imperial Royal Guards who protected Sheev Palpatine during his reign as Emperor, and the Imperial Praetorian Guard who protected members of the Shadow Council after the collapse of the Galactic Empire, their training emphasized meeting any threat with overwhelming force.
Their combat expertise encompassed various martial arts disciplines, including Teräs Käsi, Bakuuni Hand, Echani unarmed forms, Nar Kanji "Blind Alley" techniques, and they wielded a range of advanced melee weapons. Their origins can be traced, in part, to the royal guards of the Atrisian Emperor.
During the conflict between the First Order and the Resistance, the Praetorian Guard was stationed on the Supreme Leader's flagship, the Supremacy. The guards were present in Snoke's throne room when Kylo Ren, the First Order warlord and his apprentice, betrayed and killed their master. Seeking vengeance, the Praetorians attacked Ren. Ultimately, Ren and Rey, a former scavenger turned aspiring Jedi, defeated and destroyed the entire Praetorian Guard, including the First Guard, Third Guard, Seventh Guard, and Eighth Guard. Following battle with the Praetorians, Ren, a warrior of the dark side, claimed the title of Supreme Leader.
The Praetorian Guard, initially known as the Imperial Praetorian Guard, was created after the fall of the Galactic Empire and served as elite personal security soldiers protecting key figures within the Imperial Remnants. They were bodyguards modeled on the Emperor's Royal Guard who protected Darth Sidious during his reign as Emperor. The name "Praetorian Guard" itself has origins dating back to the Praetorian Guards of the 14th Atrisian Emperor.
Moff Gideon requested that Commandant Brendol Hux deploy three Praetorian Guards to assist in the battle for Mandalore, anticipating that the Mandalorians would attempt to reclaim their homeworld. Gideon's plan involved the Mandalorians being ambushed by Imperial armored commandos at the Great Forge, trapping them. As Paz Vizsla, the Heavy Infantry Mandalorian, fought the last of the commandos to allow the surviving Mandalorians to escape, the three Praetorian Guards arrived and killed the exhausted warrior.
Subsequently, the three Praetorian Guards aided Moff Gideon in his battle against Din Djarin, quickly gaining the upper hand. However, before they could deliver the final blow, Grogu, piloting IG-12, intervened. The Praetorian Guards pursued the foundling into Gideon's conference room and swiftly disabled the mech suit. Grogu evaded them by using his Force abilities to jump across the room's light supports. The guards destroyed the supports, grounding Grogu, but Djarin, freed from his engagement with Gideon by Bo-Katan Kryze, re-engaged the Praetorian Guards. Using his beskar armor to defend against their attacks, Djarin, aided by Grogu's use of the Force, killed the three guards with his blaster pistols and vibro-knife.
Under the First Order, which arose from the ashes of the Empire, the Praetorian Guard became known as the Elite Praetorian Guard. This unit consisted of eight human warriors tasked with safeguarding the First Order's leader, Supreme Leader Snoke. Mirroring the original guards of the Atrisian Emperor, Snoke's guards operated in pairs. The Elite Praetorian Guard stood watch over the Supreme Leader in his throne room located on the Supremacy, Snoke's Mega-class Star Dreadnought. Among the guards were the First, Third, and Seventh Guards. Snoke relied on them to handle physical threats from a distance, as his physical abilities had diminished despite his continued mastery of the Force, rendering him vulnerable to direct attacks.
The guards were on duty in Snoke's throne room when the Supreme Leader summoned his apprentice, Kylo Ren, and criticized him for his failures at Starkiller Base. When Kylo reacted aggressively to the taunts, the guards immediately prepared for combat but stood down at Snoke's command. As Snoke explained to Rey how she and the Resistance were doomed, Rey seized Kylo Ren's lightsaber to attack him, the Guards immediately attempted to attack her but Snoke called them down. As she tried to attack Snoke, he used the force to push her away while the Guards returned to neutral stances.
During Snoke's confrontation with Rey, he instructed Kylo Ren to fulfill his destiny by killing her. However, Snoke was unaware that Ren was using the Force to manipulate the Skywalker lightsaber, which was lying next to the Supreme Leader, rather than striking Rey with his own. Ren activated the lightsaber, killing Snoke before the Praetorian Guard could react.
Upon Snoke's death at Ren's hands, the Praetorian Guards immediately engaged in combat to avenge their leader's death. Ren and Rey, who was present, fought all eight guards in a brief but intense battle. Initially, the guards proved to be a match for the two Force users, their weapons resisting lightsaber strikes and managing to inflict wounds on both. However, they were ultimately outmatched and fell one by one. The final guard was killed when Kylo ignited Rey's lightsaber, which she had thrown to him, through his faceplate, killing him instantly. Ren then claimed the title of Supreme Leader.
By 35 ABY, near the end of his reign as Supreme Leader of the First Order, Kylo Ren viewed the Knights of Ren, a group of masked elite warriors, as his equivalent to the disbanded Elite Praetorian Guard.
The Imperial Praetorian Guards were elite warriors who served the Shadow Council during the New Republic Era. Known for their savage responses to any perceived threat, the guards were highly skilled fighters clad in red armor, a visual callback to the Emperor's Royal Guard, and wore helmets with a design reminiscent of Mandalorian armor. Their attire included segmented armor plates and robes. Their chest plates mirrored those of the First Order's later stormtroopers, but were colored red. The Imperial Praetorian Guards wielded weapons such as a bilari electro-chain whip, an electro-bisento, and a vibro-arbir blade. They served as predecessors to the Elite Praetorian Guards of the First Order, who continued the segmented armor and robe design of their Imperial counterparts.
The Elite Praetorian Guards of the First Order wore ornate crimson [armor](/article/armor], robes, and a plastoid helmet. The Praetorian Guard's layered crimson armor was a sophisticated composite material interwoven with conductive wirepaths that, when powered, generated a powerful local magnetic field. When activated, this energy-intensive field allowed the plates to deflect blaster fire. Even a lightsaber could be deflected, although a direct thrust could penetrate the armor. The mag-coils were expensive, the plates heavy, and exposure to the mag-field was painful for the wearer. They were merciless, relentless, and specialized in melee combat, as Snoke anticipated they would eventually face lightsaber wielders. The armor underwent several revisions over the years, with the original Guard's armor incorporating elements of stormtrooper armor.
The Praetorian Guards possessed an arsenal of melee weapons that were advanced versions of primitive analogs found in various societies across the galaxy, including long vibro-voulges, electro-bisentos with an electro-[plasma](/article/plasma] energy filament along the blade's edge, flailing Bilari electro-chain whips, and heavy double-bladed vibro-arbir blades that could be separated into dagger-like single-bladed weapons for versatility in combat. Individual Praetorian Guards specialized in a specific weapon configuration. The First Guard wielded electro-bisentos. The Third Guard used Bilari electro-chain whips, and the Seventh Guard employed dual vibro-arbir blades.
The Praetorians' weapons, lightsaber-resistant armor, and training allowed them to initially hold their own against Ren and Rey, but the Force-sensitive pair ultimately defeated and killed them.
The Elite Praetorian Guard was conceived and developed for Star Wars: Episode VIII The Last Jedi, the eighth installment in the Star Wars saga, released on December 15, 2017. The Praetorian Guard was officially revealed in an Entertainment Weekly article published on August 9, 2017. The Guards made their first appearance in Star Wars: Tales of the Force, a Golden Book released on September 5, 2017 as part of the Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi series.
Rian Johnson, the writer and director of The Last Jedi, envisioned the Praetorian Guards as agile and dangerous, more akin to samurai than the formal and ceremonial Emperor's Royal Guards. Michael Kaplan designed the Praetorian Guards' costumes in accordance with Johnson's vision. The guards were named after the historical Praetorian Guard who served as personal bodyguards to the Roman emperors.
An earlier iteration of the Praetorian Guard appeared in "Chapter 23: The Spies" of The Mandalorian television series, but it wasn't until the 2024 reference book Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy that the connection between the two groups was confirmed.