Could Disney Reintroduce This Fan Favorite 'Star Wars' Character?
With decades of comic books, video games, books, TV shows and, yes, movies over the course of several decades, Star Wars has a long, rich history of hundreds of characters not seen in the main films made by George Lucas, then Disney. When Disney bought the franchise in 2012, it made almost everything that wasn't directly involved in the movies "Legends" instead of canon. However, in the decade since, they have taken some of the more beloved characters and made them officially canon, such as Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Revan.
Well, we might be seeing another popular character added to that list, in the mercenary/Jedi Master Kyle Katarn. First seen in 1995's Dark Forces video game, Katarn has a long history in books and video games. He started out as a young man training to join the Empire, before an Imperial attack killed his father, causing him to join the Rebels. He joined the effort to steal the Death Star plans, and stopped the evil Jerec and his group of six other Dark Jedi from finding the Valley of the Jedi. He eventually became a Jedi Master in Luke Skywalker's rebuilt Jedi academy, including training Jaden Korr in 2003's Jedi Academy.
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With the slight increase in making Legends characters canon (though, disappointingly, the events of the Knights of the Old Republic games remain Legends, outside of briefly mentioning Darth Revan in materials for The Rise of Skywalker) we could finally see Kyle Katarn officially made canon in Disney's mind.
How this would happen is up for debate. His last official appearance was in the 2012 novel Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse so it's been quite a while since we've seen any media involving him, canon or not. For a lot of the newer Star Wars fans, they may look at him and not know who he is, especially if they don't play any old Star Wars video games. Dark Forces came out in 1995, after all, which is four years before even The Phantom Menace. It's pretty much impossible to add him to the story of stealing the Death Star plans at this point, given that he wasn't in Rogue One.
Given the endings of both The Book of Boba Fett and the second season of The Mandalorian, it's clear that Luke Skywalker is attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order, so dealing with a force sensitive Katarn would make sense. In the Jedi Academy video game, Kyle took on two apprentices (the player-controlled character and a fellow hopeful named Rosh) because the Academy had a shortage of masters verses potential students, so if he appears in anything canon regarding Luke's academy, it'll probably be when it's just starting to get off of the ground.
If he is part of Luke’s academy, it’ll beg the question of exactly what happens to him after Ben Solo/Kylo Ren destroys it. Was he killed, or did he escape to return to a mercenary life. A return to that wouldn’t be completely out of character, as he left the Jedi Order after turning to the dark side, then back to the light during Mysteries of the Sith, an expansion pack for Dark Forces II. From there, he could show up in a role as a jaded ex-Jedi doing odd jobs, while frequenting cantinas, who helps the protagonist(s) with some quest.
Kyle Katarn is one of the most popular Star Wars video game characters. With Disney taking more from Legends and making it canon, even in passing (a la Revan) we could see Katarn making an appearance. It wouldn't be a choice that would irritate the fans, on the contrary, it would excite a large portion of the fanbase, whose childhood and Star Wars fandom are closely linked to these video games and Kyle Katarn.
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Source(s): CBR.com