Actually, Zombies Aren’t New to Star Wars At All!
Star Wars didn’t bring the undead into play recently just for the Halloween season. There have been galactic zombies for years.
This month Ahsoka brought the idea of zombies in Star Wars to all of our screens. And while the undead joining the galaxy far far away may seem like a fun Halloween gimmick or even like the entire galaxy collectively jumping the space shark, we’ve actually seen zombies appear in Star Wars quite a few times in the past.
Enough so that some of us were guessing exactly what was going on with Thrawn’s Night Troopers pretty early on. But where else have we seen intergalactic zombies? And how canon is that history these days?
Death Troopers
Recently we’ve come to know the Death Troopers as an elite group of stormtroopers who specialize in tealth, espionage, and quiet murder. They’re the super assassins of the Empire, often acting as personal protection for the most important Imperial officers.
But in 2009 ‘Death Troopers‘ had a slightly different meaning. Coming from the novel by Joe Schreiber of the same name, Death Troopers takes place about a year before A New Hope. In short, a ragtag group of space farers find a drifting Star Destroyer and- having broken down themselves–send a party to scavenge parts and supplies. They also bring back a disease that’s as quick and deadly as it is horrific. Y’know, average zombie movie stuff. But in space. Galactic Empire space.
It’s meant to be fun, but also decidedly horror. And as a Legends book, it came from a time when Star Wars was full of much more questionable stuff than this. A prequel, Red Harvest, was published about a year later in 2010.
So zombies have definitely been in Star Wars before. But have we seen them recently? How about in the newly established canon?
Nightsister Zombies
Of course, we have.
We’ve seen Star Wars stories return to the planet Dathomir a few times now, and some of those visits have been to spend time learning about the Nightsisters. There is too much to say about either Dathomir or the Nightsisters here. But this group of Dathomirian women is known for having control over the dark side of the force so profound that it’s considered magic.
One thing the Nightsisters are most infamous for doing with their magic is raising the dead as Nightsister Zombies. Using the Chant of Resurrection, a corpse could be brought back as a zombie from a decent distance. And this ability has been used a few times on screen and in current canon; once even to repel General Grievous and a Separatist army. We’ve seen this ability a few times in the animated shows, but also in the Fallen Order video game series.
Night Troopers
With this in mind, Ahsoka brought us to the ancient and original Nightsister home planet where three of the most powerful Nightsisters–the Great Mothers–were trapped alongside a ship full of dwindling Imperial forces.
On top of that, we see coffin-shaped boxes being loaded onto the Chimaera over the course of a few episodes and badly deteriorated Stormtrooper armor that already looked halfway to a zombie film. The Great Mothers using the Chant of Resurrection to bring back some of these recently deceased forces to fight off Jedi follows with what we’ve already seen before.
But now our biggest question is, will Thrawn and the Great Mothers attempt to retake the galaxy with an army of the undead?
What do you think? Were you familiar with Star Wars history with zombies? Did you read Death Troopers and did you enjoy it? Let us know in the comments!
May the Force be with you, adventurers!
