Amazing ‘Star Wars’ Fan Film Shows The Jedi Purge From A Different Perspective
Cinematic Captures, a YouTube Channel, recently published a Star Wars fan film entitled The Dark Times, showing us the end of the Clone Wars, more specifically Order 66, from a slightly different perspective than we have seen before. The film, which can accurately be described as a roughly two-minute trailer, appears to be narrated by former Sith Apprentice Darth Maul.
As fans know, Maul survived his seemingly fatal duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace and several encounters with Kenobi and his former Padawan, Anakin Skywalker, Ashoka Tano, and the Jedi during the Clone Wars and Order 66. It's unclear who exactly is voicing Maul in this, but if it wasn't Sam Witwer, who voiced Darth Maul in The Clone Wars, Rebels, and LEGO Star Wars, they're a dead-ringer for him.
Maul describes the ultimate fate of the Jedi as we are shown images of Darth Maul, clone troopers and Separatist battle droids battling, and clones turning on the Jedi, Jedi being attacked and killed in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, and lastly, Jedi, including Ashoka Tano, hiding from Imperial Troops and Inquisitors. These images are brought to life using hyper-realistic computer animation. Ominous music, appropriately, accompanies this montage, including an electric guitar cover of the Imperial March during the end credits.
Darth Maul's narration of this fan film seems appropriate, as he was formerly Emperor Palpatine's Sith apprentice and was privy to some of his ultimate designs for the Jedi Order and the galaxy-at-large, even if he wasn't able to connect all the pieces until Palpatine initiated Order 66. In the final arc of Season 7 of The Clones Wars, Ashoka led a contingent of clone troopers to Mandalore, which Maul briefly controlled as the leader of Death Watch. Here Ahsoka and her troopers attempt to capture the renegade Sith Lord. During Ashoka's confrontations with Maul in this final arc, he revealed his suspicions to her about Palpatine's grand design for the end of the Clone Wars, including his plans for her former Master, Anakin Skywalker.
Ashoka refused to believe much of what Maul told her and succeeded in capturing Maul. Unfortunately, during their return trip to Coruscant (happening concurrently with the events of Revenge of the Sith), Palpatine initiated Order 66, turning all the clones aboard their Republic Cruiser against Ashoka. Even Maul, who is obviously not a Jedi but a Force-user nonetheless, is targeted for execution by the clones.
While trying to avoid her own capture and execution at the hands of her formerly loyal clone troopers, Ashoka incapacitated Rex and removed his inhibitor chip, which triggered the clones to obey Order 66. She also freed Maul so he could cause a distraction for the clones, not out of compassion for him. Ahsoka and Rex worked together to get off the cruiser. However, Maul managed to sideline them, stole the lone shuttle from the hangar bay, and escaped. Ashoka and Rex eventually managed to flee the ship via a Y-Wing, as the crippled cruiser fell to its doom on a deserted planet below.
Aside from The Clone Wars series and, of course, Revenge of the Sith, other Star Wars series and media have also explored the tragic end of the Clone Wars for the Jedi and the rise of the Empire. This includes, most notably, Star Wars Rebels, which featured Kanan Jarrus (aka Caleb Dume) and his newfound Padawan, Ezra Bridger. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a video game based on a former Jedi, Cal Kestis, trying to survive the Empire's attempts to hunt him down via their Inquisitors. The newest series, The Bad Batch, shows us the immediate aftermath of the Clone Wars from the perspective of a group of altered clone troopers. In its first season, the show also showed us the gradual transition by the Empire from its use of the genetically engineered clone troopers to recruited soldiers (aka stormtroopers).
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Source(s): Screen Rant