In the interest of expanding in a different direction when it comes to the Star Wars franchise, it’s a big hope that we won’t be hearing that names such as Exar Kun and many others belong to Legends and won’t have any place in the coming years. Not only would that be kind of a shady dodge from the Mouse House, but it would also be a serious disappointment considering that the Old Republic, the High Republic, and the entire past of Star Wars could shed a huge light on the origins of the Jedi and the Sith, and would introduce a host of characters that would be able to shed a little more light on how things formed the way they did in the story that George Lucas came up with. Whether Lucas would approve of this or not is kind of hard to care about since a lot of fans are still a bit sore that he gave up his creation to Disney without keeping at least the chance to say yes or no to certain items that might come up.
Even if he’d done so it’s fair to think that Lucas would be upsetting a lot of fans in another way since he’s gone on to say that certain aspects of the Legends canon aren’t what he had in mind and don’t look anything like what he envisioned. That’s the trick about any creative piece since it can spin out of a creator’s grasp so quickly that getting it back wouldn’t just disrupt the story, it would upset a lot of fans that have grown used to the way things are. As of now, the way it sounds is that Disney is only going to step back a couple of hundred years when it comes to the High Republic, meaning that the Mouse House is no doubt being cautious when it comes to its approach. One can only hope this means that they’ll find a convincing way to implement a character like Exar Kun, or won’t use him at all and save his character for another, deeper dive into Star Wars history later on.
Exar Kun is a great villain since he was even bolder than Palpatine and stronger than Vader (that’s debatable though). This is a Sith that began his time in the Force as a Jedi, and unlike some of the greatest that returned to the way of the Jedi, he was completely corrupted and never looked back. During his time, Kun managed to kill a chancellor, his old master, recruit and train several new Sith from the Jedi ranks, and sustain a war that took around half a century to recover from. When it comes to being a tough, skilled, and intelligent opponent, I would even venture to say that Kun would have put Palpatine on notice, since in terms of power, he’s at the same level as many Sith, especially since he was still around in the Legends canon until Luke Skywalker’s students managed to band together in an attempt to banish him for good. The fact that the spirit of a Sith lord that had existed thousands of years ago had managed to remain for so long in the place of his death feels like it’s worth a good story and a movie, possibly even another trilogy since it a lot of fans would likely be willing to watch.
As of now, nothing has been said about this, but it would be great to hear something about the deeper reaches of the past that Star Wars has been given in the books and the comics, especially since it would bring to life a great many characters that people already have a lot of interest in. But if the Mouse House is only capable of dipping their collective toes in the water so to speak, and manage to bring Revan forward thousands of years to suit their needs, then it’s going to be worth a long and weary shake of the head. I’m not the only one that’s growing a bit irritated with Disney when it comes to how they’re handling Star Wars, but like many others, I’m also waiting to see if they start listening to the fans at least a little bit, at least enough to realize that the Legends canon isn’t something to be closed and tossed aside until they’re ready to crack it open and pull a few pieces that they can use here and there.
Exar Kun is just one of many impressive characters that could be used to bring Star Wars into a new era that a lot of fans would no doubt jump on with a great deal of enthusiasm. The sad part is that if we ever do see this guy, Disney will likely find a way to twist and turn him to their ends. We’ve all seen how that can go, and it’s hard to be impressed by their ‘best’ any longer unless we’re talking about Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau
Jon Favreau
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