One Jedi The Empire Lied About Being Alive After Star Wars’ Order 66

Thousands of Jedi were killed after the Clone Wars, but Star Wars Rebels revealed there was one Jedi the Empire lied about being alive in order to lure surviving members of the Order into a trap. Kanan Jarrus once told his apprentice Ezra Bridger that there were approximately 10,000 Jedi in the galaxy during the Clone Wars, but Emperor Palpatine’s Jedi Purge – which began with Order 66 – brought that number down to only a few.

The Emperor tasked Darth Vader with snuffing out the Jedi from the galaxy in the period between the prequel and original Star Wars trilogies. Vader did this with the help of his Inquisitorius (and their Purge Troopers), a group of dark side Force users known by others as Jedi hunters. They had a sizable presence in both the animated series Star Wars Rebels and the video game Jedi: Fallen Order. And needless to say, they were successful in doing their job – and part of their success can be attributed to how they lured Jedi into traps.

In Star Wars Rebels season 1, episode 5, “Rise of the Old Masters”, Imperial Senator Gall Trayvis tricked the Ghost crew into heading to the Stygeon system – specifically to the Spire – where the Empire was apparently holding Jedi Master Luminara Unduli prisoner. Kanan noted there had been rumors of Unduli’s survival but nothing concrete until now. Despite the risk, they took the opportunity to rescue her, but when they arrived on the Spire, the Grand Inquisitor was waiting for them. Regrettably, Luminara Unduli was already dead and her remains were being used to capture Jedi like Kanan Jarrus.

To make matters even worse, when Kanan and Ezra walked into Luminara’s prison cell, they saw a recording of her shortly before she was executed by the Grand Inquisitor. So her remains were not only a form of bait but also a terrifying reminder of what happened to the Jedi who escaped during Order 66 but ultimately couldn’t elude the Empire. Luckily, Kanan, Ezra, and the rest of the Ghost crew managed to flee the Spire with their lives, and they later made attempts to notify others that Luminara Undulil had died during the Jedi Purge.

And while Star Wars fans know Luminara Unduli was killed by the Grand Inquisitor, it’s still unclear exactly when she died. It’s believed she was executed shortly after the events of Revenge of the Sith, which means the Empire was lying about her death for at least a decade. They may have drawn several Jedi to their deaths without the Rebels knowing. The thing is, it wasn’t the first time the Empire tried a strategy like this; Darth Vader initially tried to use the Jedi beacon to draw people back to the Temple, but Obi-Wan Kenobi changed that into a warning message. Who knows, there may have been other efforts like these.

About The Author

Mansoor Mithaiwala
(1888 Articles Published)

Mansoor Mithaiwala is Screen Rant’s TV Lead Editor. He originally joined the site as a freelance writer on the Lists team before moving over to News and Features, eventually becoming an editor in 2018. Over time he’s done quite a few different things, including helping launch gaming on the site, often handling news, features, and guides simultaneously. Now he sticks primarily to movies and TV, and spends way too much time looking at analytics. It sure seems like he’s put his Political Science degree to good use, huh?

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