Star Wars is famous for its memorable characters, but with so many epic battles, not everyone survives. Some characters appear to die but later return to fight again, and we’re focusing on those cases today. Because the Star Wars story has expanded across decades and many different movies and shows, we need to clarify what we mean by ‘resurrection.’ We’re counting characters who die in one part of a story – a TV season or a movie – and come back later, even in a completely different project. However, if a character dies and is brought back within the same episode or movie, that doesn’t count. Examples of this are Ahsoka Tano in Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ ‘Altra of Mortis’ and Rey in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
Of course, deaths that were faked – like when Darth Vader pretended to kill the Grand Inquisitor in Obi-Wan Kenobi to trick Reva Sevander – don’t really count as deaths. A fake death isn’t a true one. But the characters below? We thought they were genuinely gone. We either saw them die, or the story strongly implied they had died. Despite that, they somehow returned.
8) Palpatine
In Return of the Jedi, Emperor Sheev Palpatine, also known as Darth Sidious, was defeated when Darth Vader threw him into a reactor shaft, seemingly ending his cruel rule. However, he unexpectedly returned as a clone in The Rise of Skywalker.
In The Rise of Skywalker, it was revealed that Palpatine survived by transferring his mind into a clone body on the Sith planet Exegol. The novelization clarified that Palpatine had been preparing these clones for some time, sensing Vader’s potential fall to the Light Side (though Vader didn’t truly waver until later in Return of the Jedi). Essentially, Palpatine’s consciousness left his body as he fell, ensuring his survival on Exegol, even though his original body died during the fall. Many fans saw this resurrection as a reaction to the divisive choices made in Star Wars: The Last Jedi – a way to course-correct after a strong negative response.
7) Burryaga Agaburry
As a big fan, I’m really enjoying how expansive Star Wars: The High Republic is becoming! It’s not just one story, but a whole collection of novels, comics, and audio dramas, plus the Young Jedi Adventures and The Acolyte shows. One character I’ve consistently seen pop up throughout everything is Burryaga Agaburry, a Wookiee Jedi Knight, and I love that they’re keeping him involved!
As a big Star Wars fan, I remember reading in The Fallen Star back in 2022 that Agaburry seemed to have died during the attack on Starlight Beacon – everyone just assumed he was one of the Jedi who didn’t make it. But then, it was a fun surprise to find out in the 2023 short story, “All Jedi Walk Their Own Path,” that he actually survived! Honestly though, it’s tough to get too invested. He’s only appeared in some of the more obscure Star Wars books and comics – never anything on screen, so he’s not a character most fans are familiar with.
6) Aurra Sing
Although we don’t directly see Aurra Sing die in the final episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 2, her ship, the Slave I (where she mentored Boba Fett), crashes and explodes on Florrum. Even if she was inside when it blew up—which seems probable—she reappeared in the next season, attempting to assassinate Padmé Amidala.
As shown in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Aurra Sing was ultimately killed by Tobia Beckett (Woody Harrelson). Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany) hired Beckett to eliminate her, and he did so by pushing her off a cliff.
5) Asajj Ventress
As a huge Star Wars fan, I was really surprised to see Asajj Ventress back! I thought she’d died heroically back in 2015 in the novel Dark Disciple – she gave her life to save Quinlan Vos from Dooku’s Force lightning. So, it was a total shock to see her pop up in season three of The Bad Batch in the episode “The Harbinger” after being gone for almost a decade. It’s great to have her back, even if it was unexpected!
The upcoming animated series Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld (2025) explains to puzzled fans that Asajj Ventress’s body was taken to her home world, Dathomir, by Quinlan Vos and Obi-Wan Kenobi. Although offered the chance to join the spirits of other Nightsisters, Ventress chose to return to life and reunite with Vos.
4) Echo
Everyone loved the clone trooper Echo, and the show led us to think he’d died in battle. This happened in Season 3, Episode 19 of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, titled “Counterattack,” when his ship was destroyed. All that was left was his badly damaged helmet.
I honestly thought we’d seen the last of Echo after season seven aired on Disney+. But thankfully, we didn’t! He popped up in Star Wars: The Bad Batch, which started airing just a year after The Clone Wars finished, and it was great to see so much more of him.
3) Boba Fett
Boba Fett wasn’t in the original Star Wars trilogy very much, but his cool design and confident attitude instantly made him popular with fans. Even though he wasn’t a central character in the story, it was still surprising and upsetting when he was seemingly eaten by the Sarlacc pit in Return of the Jedi.
Temuera Morrison’s appearance as Boba Fett in Season 2 of The Mandalorian was a welcome surprise, finally giving us a glimpse into the character behind the mask and making his survival of the Sarlacc Pit believable. However, The Book of Boba Fett ultimately fell short of expectations. Instead of a compelling story focused on Boba Fett, the show often centered on Din Djarin, making it feel less like Boba Fett’s story and more like a continuation of The Mandalorian.
2) Fennec Shand
It’s debatable whether Fennec Shand actually died. She was seriously wounded – shot in the stomach and left for dead in the desert – in Season 1 of The Mandalorian. However, Ming-Na Wen played the character so well that she was brought back in Season 2 and continued to appear in The Book of Boba Fett, where she was a popular character.
Shand was critically wounded when Toro Calican senselessly shot her and left her for dead. Fortunately, Fett discovered her just in time and rushed her to a repair shop in Mos Eisley. There, her severely damaged body was rebuilt with cybernetic implants. This was a satisfying way to bring her back, both because it’s a believable explanation for her survival, and because Wen is such a strong character that it would have been disappointing to see her appear in only one episode.
1) Darth Maul
Darth Maul famously appeared to be cut in half during a spectacular lightsaber fight in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace – a duel many consider the best in the entire series. Surprisingly, he came back 13 years later in the next-to-last episode of the fourth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, an episode called “Brothers.”
Surprisingly, a return for Maul was planned from the beginning, after The Phantom Menace. George Lucas originally intended for Maul to play a significant role in the sequel trilogy, before Disney’s releases of episodes seven, eight, and nine. While it would have been fascinating to see that happen, the story arc Maul received in Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels – culminating in his final defeat by Obi-Wan Kenobi – provided a strong enough foundation to bring the mysterious character back.
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2026-02-12 00:46