What is Coruscant? The city-planet at the center of the ‘Star Wars’ galaxy explained

In the Star Wars universe, there are any number of iconic and fascinating planets characters go to while on adventures. Tatooine is apparently the most important, Exegol came out of writers painting themselves into a corner and in the prequel era, George Lucas gave us Coruscant. Most people know the place as the capital of the Old and New Republics and Empire, and its lore is richer, too.

According to estimates, the planet is thought to have three trillion residents in its city-covering ecumenopolis. The old franchise continuity put it in the billions and during the Empire era, it was known as Imperial Center. Coruscant is also where humanity is thought to have first come from in the Star Wars galaxy, though this is not yet confirmed, and, while films and television shows have generally given us a look at the society’s upper levels and elite, Coruscant also features an extremely dangerous underworld.

According to the planet’s official Wookiepedia entry, no less than Grand Admiral Thrawn was intimidated by what happens down below the visible goings-on in the world. He told someone once at the bottom a person might as well be in wild space and, after Emperor Palpatine seized power, those who were not loyal to him were forcibly relocated there. They would frequently riot and as a result Imperial forces were regularly called in to help regular security on the planet put things down with very violent tactics. We almost got a glimpse of this in the now-iced Star Wars 1313 game and, below even these, there are mysterious forbidden levels.

Since its realization in live-action, it has also appeared in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Andor, Tales of the Jedi and the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords video game via a look at the Jedi Temple. Fans also got a look at the planet that never sleeps on The Mandalorian recently, though several who like Andor say it pales in comparison to that show. Where it will show up next is anyone’s question, but, with how big it is, it is certainly ripe for stories on top of stories. At first, it was also planned to appear in Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi as Had Abbadon, but creatives tossed this as the idea of such a massive city was not feasible to do on screen back then and the name was then re-used in an old Legends story.