Could Revan appear in Star Wars: The High Republic?

With the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the Skywalker saga is finally finished. Now, Disney/Lucasfilm is heading in a completely different direction with its storytelling. Enter Star Wars: The High Republic.

The High Republic “will be set in an era when the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order are at their zenith, about 200 years before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” according to the official synopsis. That means that, through various books and comics, we’re going to see a whole new Jedi Order, with new characters, new takes on lightsabers and weapons, and new stories involving a strange new enemy called the Nihil.

With the story going back 200 years from Episode I, this could be the perfect time to bring in a much-beloved character that had been relegated to the (officially) non-canon Star Wars Legends universe (the new name for the Star Wars Extended Universe) until Dave Filoni briefly used him on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, when a Sith lord saw him in a vision. Because of that brief vision, Revan crossed over from Legends and made his way into Star Wars canon…well, sort of.

The “Mortis” arc from season 3 of The Clone Wars ran on Netflix in 2015, years before the show got brought back on Disney+ for its current and final season. After that Revan’s name briefly appears in The Rise of Skywalker: Emperor Palpatine has a group of Sith Troopers called the Revan Legion. Other than that, he has yet to appear in any Disney-approved capacity, and definitely hasn’t shown up in animated shows like Star Wars Rebels or The Clone Wars.

However, Disney is not averse to featuring characters from the Legends Universe, as it did when Grand Admiral Thrawn appeared as the main villain in the final seasons of Rebels. He then became the focus of a new series of books from author Timothy Zahn, who had originally created the character during the heyday of the Extended Universe. Just because a character was born in the “non-canon” Legends universe doesn’t mean they have to stay there forever.

With all that said, let’s get into who Revan is and why now would be the perfect time to bring him back and restore him to his former glory.

Revan was a character created for stories and games called The Old Republic. He was a Jedi Knight who fought in the Mandalorian Wars some 3,000 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode I. He was known as a tactical genius who won many battles against the Mandalorians, and so he was appointed the Supreme Commander of Jedi and Galactic Republic forces.

After defeating the Mandalorian leader — Mandalore the Ultimate — and taking his helmet as his own, Revan earned a following of Jedi who called themselves Revanchists. This troubled the Jedi Council, but Revan had gained such a large following of Jedi — and he had the favor of the Supreme Chancellor — so they had no choice but to allow him to continue to lead their army.

Revan then ended the Mandalorian War by activating a devastating superweapon known as the Mass Shadow Generator, devastating the planet of Malachor and destroying any fleeing Mandalorian ships.

After his victory, Revan and his close friend Malak left the Jedi Order to search the farthest reaches of space for the ancient homeworld of the Sith, fearing they would attack the newly peaceful Republic. When they found it, the Sith Emperor seduced both Jedi to the Dark Side and made them Sith Lords.

Darth Revan and Darth Malek returned to the republic at the head of a massive Sith armada and attacked the Republic. Many of the Revenchists followed their former leader to the Dark Side and the Sith dealt a terrible blow to the heart of the Republic.

Eventually, and through the help of his former friends in the Jedi Order, Revan was redeemed to the Light and he once again became a Jedi Knight. He defeated his old friend Darth Malek and won a decisive victory against the Sith, forcing them to once again flee to the farthest reaches of space, where they would lick their wounds and begin to re-build another army to invade and attack the Republic once more.

So how can a character from The Old Republic, set some 3,000 years before the events of The High Republic fit into that storyline? Well, as I’ve said, Revan has yet to make an appearance in any of the new Disney stories — except as a brief moment as a ghost and as the name of a Sith Trooper legion — and his story could make for a very interesting turn of events in The High Republic.

While I’m all for reading about new characters introduced in Star Wars canon for The High Republic, I think including Revan and some version of his story would be a great way to pull in old-school Star Wars fans.

Perhaps Revan could be the Supreme Commander of the Jedi forces as they face the threat of the Nihil. Maybe he could fight a long and bloody war with the Nihil before finally defeating them and then heading off to become a Sith Lord, earning his fan-favorite name of Darth Revan.

Just like Disney did with Thrawn, Revan’s story could be easily placed into the new Star Wars canon, and The High Republic is the perfect place to do that.

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