You probably clicked on this article because you’ve already seen chapter 23 of The Mandalorian. If not yet: Spoiler alert for the first few minutes of the new episode! In it, Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) meets a Shadow Council who has never stopped serving the Empire, including Captain Gilad Pellaeon (Xander Berkeley) and Commander Brendol Hux (Brian Gleeson).
The looks of these two characters alone are remarkable: Brendol Hux is the father of General Armitage Hux, known for the “Star Wars” sequels – and actor Brian Gleeson is the younger brother of General Hux actor Domhnall Gleeson. And Captain Pellaeon brings a Legends character back into the official Star Wars canon – he serves as the right-hand man of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), the self-proclaimed heir to the realm. But not only the characters themselves are interesting, they also talk about a mysterious secret program: Project Necromancer.
The return of Palpatine
In this context, the cloning experiments are also discussed. And if you remember necromancer meaning something like necromancer, you probably came up with it yourself: Project Necromancer most likely marks the return of Sheev Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) prepared! He was behind the clone creature Snoke (Andy Serkis) in the sequel trilogy, before reappearing in his own form in “Star Wars 9: The Rise of Skywalker”.
The fact that Palpatine is still alive – or alive again – came very suddenly to many “Star Wars” fans in the sequels, as no detailed explanation was given for his resurrection. This gap should be with “The Mandalorian” and the other series from the Mandoverse such. B. “Ahsoka” is now closing. But there’s more to the Shadow Council cloning debate than just a reference to the Star Wars sequels!
Because here we also learn something about Moff Gideon and his secret agenda – as it becomes clear that the cloning experiments he has been conducting have nothing to do with preparing for Palpatine’s return. Project Necromancer has been clearly identified as Hux’s project, whose son will later belong to the First Order – although we don’t see Moff Gideon in the sequels. Because he’s dead? Or because he split from the faithful of the realm and went his own way (which could also mean that he was killed, but not by Din Djarin, for example, but by the Shadow Council)?
Moff Gideon has an interest in cloning himself
Moff Gideon downplays his keen interest in cloning at the council meeting, literally telling Hux, “Cloning is your obsession, not mine.” He also lies to the council members about his involvement with Dr. Pershing’s disappearance. While it’s true that he was captured by the New Republic, Gideon’s aide Elia Kane (Katy O’Brian) lured him into that trap in the first place. She also tampered with the Mind Flayer’s controller and erased Pershing’s memory after recovering the looted equipment from the cloning lab – which Moff Gideon can now secretly experiment with.
That Moff Gideon does not want to leave the leadership of the Imperial Revival to Thrawn is also more than clear in the episode. Gideon criticizes that Thrawn is absent from the council meeting “again” and that his return has long been promised but never materialized. Gideon even suggests it might be time to “establish new leadership” – he can only really mean himself.
Does Gideon want to become immortal?
Gideon’s cloning experiments should therefore serve his own power interest. However, we still don’t know how. Possibly Gideon is working on his own immortality or his own Force sensibility – after all, he also wanted Grogu for his experiments. And also creating super soldiers is a recurring theme for Gideon. We also see a bunch of clone tanks on his base at the very beginning of chapter 23, so he’s definitely continuing his investigation, even if he downplays it in the council meeting a few minutes later.
By The Mandalorian season 3 the final episode will air on April 19, 2023 – but the Mandoverse will continue on Disney+ in August, because then comes the spin-offStar Wars: Ahsoka‘ in which we will see Grand Admiral Thrawn in action.