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The Mandalorian: Chapter 12 turned out to be a surprisingly eventful episode on several fronts, most notably the first appearance in the canon of a big villain from the Star Wars video game. The Dark Trooper now appears to be an official part of Disney’s Star Wars timeline, which means Mando and his friends have a very dangerous new foe to face. If you weren’t a PC gamer in the mid-90s, you can’t recognize these sinister armored soldiers. Read on for a full description of what the Dark Trooper is and how his live-action debut impacted The Mandalorian plot.
The Dark Troopers as seen in The Mandalorian: Chapter 12.
The Dark Trooper in Star Wars: Dark Forces
The Dark Trooper was first introduced to the franchise in the 1994 PC game Star Wars: Dark Forces. Dark Forces revolves around Kyle Katarn, an ex-Stormtrooper and mercenary hired by Mon Mothma to steal the plans for the first Death Star (obviously, the game is no longer part of the official canon). This initial mission, however, only forms the basis of the game’s opening level. From there, the game pivots to a series of missions involving Kyle and his partner Jan Ors investigating the top secret Dark Trooper project. game, the Dark Trooper Project is the brainchild of General Rom Mohc, an Imperial notable for his obsession with one-on-one combat and his aversion to impersonal superweapons like the Death Star. The Dark Trooper is designed to be a much more powerful alternative to the regular Stormtroopers in Palpatine. The Dark Troopers are equipped with more powerful weapons, jetpacks, and nearly indestructible armor forged from the rare metal phrik.Dark Forces presents three variations of the Dark Trooper. Most of the Dark Troopers seen in the game are actually battle droids rather than living soldiers. The Dark Trooper Phase 1 is unlike anything other than a cross between a Stormtrooper and a Terminator endoskeleton. The Phase 2 Dark Trooper is much bigger and more heavily armored. Phase 3 Dark Trooper is the culmination of Mohc’s plans. It’s an exoskeleton costume rather than an autonomous robot, and Mohc himself wears the only existing phase 3 costume when he takes on Katarn in the game’s climax. Naturally, Mohc is defeated and the phase suit 3 is destroyed along with the majority of Project Dark Trooper aboard Mohc’s Star Destroyer.
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Other versions of the Dark Trooper
The Dark Trooper has made a handful of appearances in other Star Wars projects, mostly in various video games and tabletop RPGs. For example, the Star Wars Galaxies MMORPG features the Triumphant-class Dark Trooper as Darth Vader’s companion, and the older Star Wars: Battlefront series throws Elite Dark Troopers into the mix.
Kyle Katarn fighting a Phase 2 Dark Trooper in Star Wars: Dark Forces.
These early Battlefront games also fleshed out the origins of the Dark Trooper Project with the introduction of Phase Zero Dark Trooper. These Proto-Dark Troopers were designed by a young Lieutenant Mohc using aging Clonetroopers as a model. By harnessing the same technology that powers Darth Vader, Mohc has augmented these Clone Wars veterans with extensive cybernetic upgrades. Unfortunately, the psychological toll turned out to be too much for these Dark Troopers, and so the project turned to droids and exosuits instead.
Some of the earliest Star Wars comics from the Dark Horse era, like Dark Empire II and Empire’s End, feature a completely different take on the Dark Trooper. These elite soldiers wear black armor (much like the Deathtroopers introduced in Rogue One) and actually have limited Force abilities. These Dark Troopers are one of the many weapons that Cloned Emperor Palpatine unleashes across the galaxy upon his return.
Why this gap? As writer Tom Veitch previously explained to IGN, the creators involved in the various Extended Universe projects weren’t always in close contact with each other at the time.
How the Mandalorian could reinvent the black soldier
While these definitely appear to be Phase 2 or 3 Dark Troopers in The Mandalorian: Chapter 12’s final scene, it’s pretty much certain that the series won’t follow the Larger Universe’s lead in what concerns these characters. On the one hand, the majority of Dark Forces take place shortly after the events of Episode IV, while The Mandalorian takes place five years after Return of the Jedi. According to the EU, the Dark Trooper project should be long gone.
But as with many characters and elements originating in the EU (Grand Admiral Thrawn, the return of Darth Maul, etc.), one can probably expect The Mandalorian to draw inspiration from these classic stories while also bringing some new turn of things. We can learn that Moff Gideon, not General Mohc, is the mastermind behind Project Dark Trooper. The Dark Troopers could be described as the Empire’s last ditch effort to maintain power. No longer having the unlimited resources of the Palpatine era, the Imperial Remnants can now see the value of a smaller army made up of highly capable and nearly indestructible super-soldiers.
The Dark Troopers can actually become the dark reverse of the Mandalorians themselves. Perhaps Gideon stole the secrets of Beskar’s armor and other Mandalorian arts in order to create a new breed of soldiers. To date, Mando has managed largely on the strength of his blaster-proof armor and years of training. What happens when the enemy suddenly has these same assets?
It’s also possible that the series could draw inspiration from variations of the Dark Troopers introduced after Dark Forces. Perhaps the series will rekindle the concept of Phase Zero Dark Troopers, revealing that these soldiers were cybernetic-powered Clonetroopers left behind by the Clone Wars. Hey, Temuera Morrison is already playing Boba Fett, so why not let him play a few clone characters while he’s at it?
We could also see the series unify the conflicting versions of Dark Troopers seen in Dark Forces and Dark Empire II. Maybe these heavily armored super soldiers will be Force users as well. As Chapter 12 makes clear, Gideon is determined to master the secret to creating Force-sensitive clones and, apparently, to help usher in Palpatine’s return. These Dark Troopers could represent his first faulty experiments with midi-chlorians.
Will Kyle Katarn also appear?
With Dark Troopers joining the fray in Chapter 12, many Star Wars fans are probably wondering if Kyle Katarn could be next. Is there room for this ex-Stromtrooper turned rebel spy turned Jedi knight? It is certainly not impossible.
Again, the series should tinker with the formula established in the EU. Given the events of Rogue One, we know that Kyle was not involved in stealing the Death Star plans. Fortunately, however, this adventure is just one stop on a much longer journey for Mr. Katarn. Even destroying Project Dark Trooper is just the start. The sequel Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II deals with Kyle’s discovery of his Jedi legacy, a thread that continues through several games. Kyle ended up playing an important role in the EU’s post-return Jedi era, most notably becoming one of the students of Luke Skywalker’s Jedi Academy.Obviously, a series like The Mandalorian won’t have a place to fully explore this character arc, but we could easily see the character debuting in Season 3 as a prelude to a bigger role elsewhere. Kyle could start as he did in the original Dark Forces – helping Mando end Moff Gideon’s Dark Troopers threat. From there, Kyle could connect with characters like Luke or Ahsoka and struggle with his Jedi powers. Even 26 years after his debut, Kyle Katarn still has a huge fan. Why not tap into this following by bringing another familiar Star Wars face to The Mandalorian?
For more on the series, check out IGN’s review of The Mandalorian: Season 2, Episode 4, refresh your memory on every character that has appeared so far, and learn more about the rules of the game. Beskar armor.
Jesse is a mild-mannered writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by follow @jschedeen on Twitter.
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