SEND IN THE CLONES
A brief history of Clones in Star Wars
Clones got their first mention in that galaxy far, far away a long time ago – in 1977, in fact, when Obi-wan Kenobi told Luke Skywalker he’d participated in the Clone Wars years earlier.
The Clone Wars were named after the Grand Army of the Republic (aka the Clone army), which fought alongside the Jedi against the Confederacy of Independent Systems (Separatists).
The Clones were created on Kamino, a water planet located just outside the main Star Wars galaxy. The Kaminoans already had a long history of producing clones to order.
The Republic’s Clones were ordered by a Jedi Master named Sifo-dyas, who was operating without the authorisation of the Jedi Council. Prior to the Invasion of Naboo in The Phantom Menace, Dyas had visions of a great war ravaging the galaxy. He took it upon himself to build an army to protect the Republic.
The Kaminoans used bounty hunter Jango Fett as the genetic template for the Clones – though they watered down the Clones’ capacity for independent thinking, and accelerated their rate of growth. For some reason, the Clones also inherited their “father’s” New Zealand accent.
Boba Fett isn’t technically Jango’s son. He’s actually an unmodified clone, with no behavioural or growth modifications.
Things didn’t turn out so well for Sifo-dyas. The Clone Wars TV show revealed that he was killed as part of a Sith conspiracy. Darths Sidious and Tyranus had got wind of the army’s existence on Kamino and started to manipulate its development for their own ends.
The most (in)famous of these interventions was Order 66, where the Clones were programmed to turn on the Jedi when Palpatine said the word.
Although most of the Jedi were wiped out at the end of the Clone Wars – and the vast majority of the Clone Troopers became soldiers of the Empire – Captain Rex defied his Order 66 programming with help from Ahsoka Tano.
Rex survived to fight alongside the nascent Rebel Alliance in Star Wars Rebels. Along with fellow Clones Wolffe and Gregor, he’d lived off the grid since the Clone Wars, being prematurely aged as a side effect of the Kaminoans’ genetic manipulation.
Over the two decades that passed between the Clone Wars and the Galactic Civil War, the Empire phased out its Clone Troopers, replacing them with conscripted Stormtroopers who couldn’t shoot straight.
Cloning has featured in The Mandalorian. Dr Pershing, the scientist working for Moff Gideon’s Imperial remnant, wore Kaminoan insignia on his uniform, and used Grogu (Baby Yoda)’s blood in his experiments in genetics.
Clones also reared their heads in The Rise Of Skywalker. Several versions of Sith puppet Supreme Leader Snoke were created, while the novelisation confirms that Emperor Palpatine survived death-by-reactor-shaft thanks to a cloned replacement body.