The History of Cloning in Star Wars

In recent years, Star Wars™ media has dealt a lot with the aspect of clones and cloning. From their first appearance in Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones™ to the third and final season of Star Wars: The Bad Batch™, clones are a hot topic. But where did they truly originate, and how have they impacted the galaxy far, far away?

Below, let’s take a look back at the history of cloning in Star Wars film and television.

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Jango Fett

Attack of the Clones

For the most part, Star Wars clones have the same face. That’s because they were all created and grown using enhanced DNA from a notorious Mandalorian™ bounty hunter called Jango Fett™. Obviously, as a bounty hunter, Jango had a lot of desirable traits for creating soldiers. He was an expert marksman with a high level of combat training. With the Kaminoans™ breeding an elite army, they needed the right starting point.

Jango and his son lived on the distant planet Kamino™. There, the Kaminoan scientists could extract and study Jango’s DNA, and he could find safe haven from adversaries such as Obi-Wan Kenobi™. This was part of his contract with the Kaminoans. These Kaminoans were in turn contracted with and commissioned to create the clones by the Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas™ over a decade before the Clone Wars™ even began.

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Boba Fett

Attack of the Clones

Ultimately, Jango Fett did not ask much in return for providing his DNA. All he wanted was an unaltered clone for himself. This boy would not be engineered in any way, so that he could grow and develop at a normal pace and live out a human lifespan. In this way, Boba Fett™ was Jango Fett’s only son.

When Jango Fett died on Geonosis™, Boba Fett took up the mercenary mantle. In the most recent canon continuity, Boba Fett worked with Fennec Shand™ to overtake Jabba the Hutt’s™ palace on Tatooine™. Now, he’s the Daimyo of Mos Espa™. He does not currently have any children of his own.

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Clone Troopers

The Clone Wars

Clone troopers™ were originally intended to be combat machines. However, The Clone Wars™ series showed us that individual soldiers all have their own personalities, motivations, and desires. Good soldiers might follow orders, but they’ll also follow their hearts. Many clones expressed their unique identities by painting their armor and dying their hair like Captain Rex™. Some got huge facial tattoos like Arc Trooper Jesse™.

Others, such as Commander Cody™, preferred a more uniform approach. But Cody still had a distinct personality, just like Wolfe™, Gregor™, and more. Additionally, while all the clones had the same vocal cords, fans could always note the differences between their registers, intonations, and accents. Make no mistake — despite their manufactured origins, these men were flesh and blood who deserved to be treated as such, instead of property.

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Omega

The Bad Batch

Omega™ was the second unaltered clone in Star Wars history. She was also the first female clone in Star Wars. Author E.K. Johnston would later reveal the transgender clone trooper named Sister in the Star Wars novel Queen’s Hope™. Sister aside, Omega is the most prominent female clone. She also didn’t receive the accelerated aging mutation at birth, so while she’s technically older than her companions, she appears and acts like a pre-teen girl.

In The Bad Batch season 2 finale, however, we met another female clone. The mysterious Imperial doctor participated in torturing and imprisoning her fellow clones. We don’t know if we can trust her. We don’t know anything about her. But the third and final season of The Bad Batch will hopefully enlighten us.

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Bad Batch / Clone Force 99

The Bad Batch

Science will never be flawless. In creating the “perfect” Republic army, there were bound to be errors. These issues resulted in clone troopers eventually known as the Bad Batch™. Each member — Hunter™, Wrecker™, Tech™, Crosshair™, and later Echo™ — had a fault in his genetic code. Although this made them undesirable in the eyes of the Kaminoans, the Republic saw the opportunity to turn them into a rogue group.

They formed the special squadron Clone Force 99™. The “flawed” clones used their differences to excel above the rest. A highly sought-after and successful squad, the Bad Batch didn’t really get along with the Regs, or regular clones. But that didn’t stop them from working together and getting the job done every time.

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Moff Gideon, Doctor Pershing, and Grogu

The Mandalorian

Moff Gideon™, The Mandalorian’s™ main villain, ruthlessly hunted Grogu™. But why? Turns out he needed the little green guy for experiments. The Mandalorian season 3 delved much deeper into this plot. Doctor Pershing™ had apparently studied cloning all his life. His research brought him to Gideon’s attention. And Gideon, knowing about the Force and the Jedi, wanted to harness that power for himself.

Gideon therefore forced Doctor Pershing to isolate the gene — and midi-chlorians™ — responsible for Grogu’s powers. Then, Gideon put the genes in perfect genetic copies of himself. Spoiler alert: It didn’t work out. All the clones were destroyed. But in terms of the Star Wars timeline, it was a prelude to another evil mastermind’s plans … plans that actually came to fruition.

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Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious

Skywalker Saga

Of course, every cloning project from the wars always had a more … insidious … purpose. As revealed in Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker™, Emperor Palpatine™ used Kaminoan technology and medical advancements to extend his existence infinitely. The Sith Lord™ already conquered death, but he needed a physical body into which he could channel his powers and abilities. Thus, cloning.

Darth Sidious™ utilized genetic cloning to work behind the scenes of the First Order™. However, his clone body seemed rather fragile, prone to both organ failure and outer decomposition. While he could still wield the dark side of the Force to its full potential, he had to be hooked up to a lot of machines to stay alive. We suppose cloning can only do so much for someone who wants to constantly push past his own limits as well as the laws of physics.

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