In 2008, LucasArts released a much-hyped game billed as a new and important part of the Star Wars saga. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed bridged the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, introducing Galen Starkiller as Darth Vader’s incredibly powerful apprentice.
The game was notable for showing the Force as never before, with Starkiller able to fry whole squads of Stormtroopers with Force Lightning, hurl objects around the map, and most memorably pluck a Star Destroyer from the sky and send it smashing onto a planet’s surface. An iffy sequel followed, but when Disney purchased Star Wars, Starkiller’s adventures were firmly rendered non-canon.
But, with so many old Expanded Universe characters making a comeback, is it time to resurrect Starkiller? Fans on Reddit are debating the issue, theorizing that he’d make a great Imperial Inquisitor:
The consensus in the replies is that while it would be fun to see Starkiller return, his story shouldn’t be shuffled off to the side as a supporting character. A top-voted reply points out that Starkiller’s “whole thing” was that he was a super secret and ridiculously powerful apprentice, so an Inquisitor being a public-facing role would mean he’d basically be a different person altogether.
Also, more prosaically, the name “Starkiller” has already been taken by The Force Awakens‘ Starkiller Base.
At this point, it’s probably best to let the character stay in the old games. It’d be nice to see these get a modern remaster at some point, particularly as the alt-history DLC that sees Starkiller carve his way through the original trilogy heroes is a seriously fun mini-story.
