Star Wars Confirms New Sith Villain to Hunt Luke Skywalker
The latest Star Wars story pits Luke Skywalker and Lando Calrissian against a new Sith warrior.
“I am your father.” Forty years later, those words remain one of cinema’s greatest twists. Even if you’ve seen The Empire Strikes Back hundreds of times, you can’t help but get a shiver down your spine when Luke’s greatest enemy reveals his identity, showing that good and evil remain inextricably linked.
While author Adam Christopher isn’t promising a twist quite so monumental, he does have plans for a similarly shocking reveal for his novel The Rise of Skywalker, Luke and Lando must also deal with a mysterious new Sith warrior, a woman known to the heroes.
Along with a new excerpt from Shadow of the Sith, the Taskmaster.
The novel excerpt takes readers inside the mind of this new villain, where she’s overcome by “a relic… [a] presence from an older time, a malignancy that somehow survived, somehow found a way.” A “terrible” voice, one “as familiar as her own” echoes inside her head, repeating the word “Soon.” Waking from nightmares, the Sith answers a call from her master, a “figure, cloaked in darkness, the hood barely concealing a face that is wrapped tightly in heavy black bandages, in the manner all cultists of the Sith Eternal hide their features.” As she begins to hear her master’s bidding, the woman wonders if, one day, the Sith “will ask too much.”
As you can see, this excerpt only offers hints about the Sith. But “if you’ve been reading the canon Star Wars novels,” io9 promises, “the true identity of this masked figure will be a familiar face to you.”
Fan theories are already starting to pop up regarding who this “familiar face” might be. While some continue to cross their fingers for the return of beloved The Force Awakens. No stranger to killing in the name of the Sith, Kiza could certainly be the villain under that creepy mask.
Either way, while Ochi has become a popular character in the comics, especially in Marvel’s ongoing Darth Vader series by Greg Pak and Raffaele Ienco, this other Sith baddie is poised to deliver a much bigger surprise. Will the reveal prove to be as memorable as Vader’s confession? Find out when Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith releases from Del Rey on June 28.
Written by
Joe George’s writing has appeared at Slate, Polygon, Tor.com, and elsewhere!