The Praetorian Guard, also known as the Imperial Praetorian Guard, and subsequently named the Elite Praetorian Guard, represented the pinnacle of crimson-armored warriors within the successor states of the Galactic Empire: namely, the Shadow Council and the First Order. Emerging as an advanced iteration of the Emperor's Royal Guard, the Praetorian Guard donned plastoid armor in crimson hues, enhanced with mag-coils to deflect incoming blaster bolts.
Within the structure of the First Order, the Praetorian Guard consisted of eight exceptionally skilled elite personal protectors tasked with safeguarding the Supreme Leader, Snoke. Dressed in red armor and robes, mirroring the Imperial Royal Guards who defended Sheev Palpatine during his rule as Emperor, and the Imperial Praetorian Guard who shielded members of the Shadow Council following the Galactic Empire's collapse, they were trained to counter any threat with overwhelming force.
These combatants were proficient in diverse martial arts disciplines, including Teräs Käsi, Bakuuni Hand, Echani unarmed forms, Nar Kanji "Blind Alley" techniques, and wielded a variety 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 their master met his demise at the hands of his apprentice, the First Order commander Kylo Ren. Reacting swiftly, the Praetorians launched an assault on Ren to avenge their fallen Supreme Leader. Despite their efforts, Ren, aided by Rey, a former scavenger aspiring to become a Jedi, eliminated the entire Praetorian Guard—including the First Guard, Third Guard, Seventh Guard, and Eighth Guard. Following battle with the Praetorians, Ren, a warrior aligned with the dark side, seized the position of Supreme Leader.
The Praetorian Guard, initially known as the Imperial Praetorian Guard, drew inspiration from the Emperor's Royal Guard, the personal bodyguards of Darth Sidious during his tenure as Emperor of the Galactic Empire. They functioned as elite personal security soldiers, safeguarding key figures within the Imperial Remnants after the Empire's downfall. The title "Praetorian Guard" has its roots in the Praetorian Guards of the 14th Atrisian Emperor.
Commandant Brendol Hux deployed three Praetorian Guards at the request of Moff Gideon to assist in the battle for Mandalore, as Gideon anticipated an attempt by the Mandalorians to reclaim their homeworld. As Gideon had foreseen, Imperial armored commandos ambushed the Mandalorians near the Great Forge, trapping them. While the Heavy Infantry Mandalorian Paz Vizsla fought the remaining commandos to allow the surviving Mandalorians to escape, the three Praetorian Guards emerged and killed the exhausted warrior.
Shortly after, the three Praetorian Guards supported Moff Gideon in his confrontation with Din Djarin, quickly gaining the upper hand. 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 the Force to jump across the room's light supports. The guards severed 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 deflect their attacks, Djarin, with Grogu's assistance through the Force, eliminated the three guards using his blaster pistols and vibro-knife.
Under the First Order, the successor state to the Empire, the Praetorian Guard, then known as the Elite Praetorian Guard, consisted of eight human warriors tasked with protecting the First Order's leader, Supreme Leader Snoke. Echoing the practices of the Atrisian Emperor's original guards, Snoke's guards operated in pairs. The Elite Praetorian Guard stood guard beside the Supreme Leader in his throne room, located within Snoke's Mega-class Star Dreadnought, the Supremacy. Three of the guards were identified as the First, Third, and Seventh Guards. Snoke relied on them to address physical threats from a distance, as his physical abilities were diminished despite his potent Force powers, rendering him unable to directly confront threats.
The guards were on duty in Snoke's throne room when the Supreme Leader summoned his apprentice Kylo Ren, whom he criticized for his failures on Starkiller Base. When Kylo responded aggressively to the taunting, the guards assumed combat stances but stood down at Snoke's command. While Snoke was explaining to Rey how she and the Resistance were doomed, Rey grabbed 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 striking her down. Snoke was unaware that Ren was manipulating the Skywalker lightsaber with the Force, which was lying next to the Supreme Leader. Ren used the Force to activate it, killing Snoke before the Praetorian Guard could react.
Upon Snoke's assassination by Ren, the Praetorian Guards immediately engaged to avenge their leader's death. Ren and Rey, who was present, faced all eight guards in a brief but intense battle. Initially, the guards proved to be evenly matched against the two Force-wielders, their weapons resisting lightsaber attacks and managing to inflict wounds on their opponents. However, they were ultimately outmatched and fell one by one, with the final guard 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 soldiers, as his equivalent to the disbanded Elite Praetorian Guard.
Imperial Praetorian Guards were elite soldiers serving the Shadow Council during the New Republic Era. Known for their savage response to any threat, these highly skilled warriors wore red armor, reminiscent of the Emperor's Royal Guard's attire, and helmets with a design similar to Mandalorian armor. Their attire featured segmented armor plates and robes. Their chest plates were identical to those of the First Order's later stormtroopers, but 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 First Order's Elite Praetorian Guards, who continued the segmented armor and robe design of their Imperial predecessors.
The First Order's Elite Praetorian Guards wore ornate crimson armor, robes, and a plastoid helmet. The layered crimson armor was a high-tech laminate with conductive wirepaths that created an intense local magnetic field when powered. This field allowed the plates to deflect blaster fire and even glance off lightsaber strikes, although a direct thrust could penetrate the shell. The mag-coils were expensive, the plates heavy, and the mag-field exposure was painful to the wearer. They were merciless, persistent, and specialized in melee combat, as Snoke anticipated encounters with lightsaber wielders. The armor evolved over time, 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 across the galaxy, including long vibro-voulges, electro-bisentos with an electro-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. The First Guard both wielded electro-bisentos. The Third Guard utilized Bilari electro-chain whips and the Seventh Guard made use of dual vibro-arbir blades. The eight Praetorian Guards consisted of four sets of pairs that wielded the same weapon. The precise, sweeping movements of their martial arts fighting style struck fear into the hearts of foes.
Despite their weapons, lightsaber-resistant armor, and training, the guards were ultimately defeated and killed by the Force-sensitive Ren and Rey.
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. Their official reveal occurred in an Entertainment Weekly article on August 9, 2017. The Guards debuted in Star Wars: Tales of the Force, a Golden Book published 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, drawing inspiration from samurai, contrasting with the more formal and ceremonial Emperor's Royal Guards. Michael Kaplan designed the Praetorian Guards' costumes to align with Johnson's vision. The guards were named after the real-world Praetorian Guard who served as personal bodyguards to Roman emperors.
An earlier iteration of the Praetorian Guard appeared in "Chapter 23: The Spies" of The Mandalorian television series, but the connection between the two groups was not confirmed until the 2024 reference book Star Wars Encyclopedia: The Comprehensive Guide to the Star Wars Galaxy.