Spoiler Warning: This article features mild spoilers for Ahsoka Episodes 1 and 2 as well as The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Star Wars: Episode 9 – The Rise of Skywalker.
Ahsoka has premiered on Disney+ as the latest Star Wars show and the identity of one masked villain is proving a hot topic amongst fans.
Marrok, who appeared in Ahsoka’s premiere episodes as a Force-wielding baddie in black armour, caused confusion even ahead of the show starting. The villain appeared to be a Sith Inquisitor from the likes of Star Wars: Rebels and Obi-Wan Kenobi, but Disney later revealed them to be former Sith-turned mercenary for hire.
“Once an Inquisitor hunting Jedi for the Empire, the mysterious Marrok now works as a mercenary hired by Morgan Elsbeth to carry out dark deeds,” Disney said. “Fully encased in battered battle armour, the warrior still carries a red double-bladed saber with a circular hilt.”
As Star Wars has a history with hiding secret identities behind its black-armoured baddies, however, a lot of fans believe there’s more to Marrok than meets the eye, with proposed origins pulling on deep-cut stories from a variety of prior Star Wars content.
One of the biggest concerns for fans is that Disney will put Ezra Bridger, the missing protagonist of Rebels who appears only as an old hologram message in Ahsoka, behind the mask. “We can all agree this is Ezra right?,” asked a Reddit user, who was met with several responses saying “no”.
“That would absolutely torch his character arc so I doubt it,” said one. “This is one of the worst theories that I’ve ever seen,” added another. “Like if this happens, it literally ruins every character development that he had.”
A leading theory is actually in another older character, one from way back in The Clone Wars: Barriss Offee. This former Padawan was a friend of Ahsoka’s before she grew to disagree with the Jedi’s participation in The Clone Wars and bombed the Jedi Temple, letting her friend take the blame. This event was one of the major contributing factors that led Ahsoka to eventually leave the Jedi altogether.
“We saw when [Sidius] kept Maul alive that he hates to waste a weapon,” said AlbertaMadam on Reddit. “So two possibilities could be that she became a type of Inquisitor for Sidious or he simply told Vader to train her as an Inquisitor and Vader did so.”
This was in response to a post moving against the idea. “Vader would never bring Barriss on as an apprentice/Inquisitor after what she did to Ahsoka,” astronautsoul said. “Even though he claims Anakin is dead and those feelings and that life is behind him, I have a feeling my dude can hold a grudge.”
Another theory, which perhaps falls on the more wild or creative side (though perhaps not thanks to the cloning storyline in Star Wars: Episode 9 – The Rise of Skywalker), is that Marrok is a failed clone of Anakin himself.
“In the Heir to the Empire novels we know that Luke faced a clone of himself so it is possible [creator Dave Filoni] would include a cloned character under Marrok’s mask as an homage to the books,” said another Reddit user. “I don’t think he would use a cloned Luke, so Anakin would be more likely.”
There’s also a chance Marrok is really just Marrok though. Maxhk645 on Reddit proposed the Inquisitor is one of the Force-sensitive children taken by the Empire in Season 2 of Rebels. “Do you think maybe after the events of that episode the Empire captured this child and raised them to be Marrok?,” they asked.
It doesn’t need to be that deep though, as other users point out. “Not sure if it’s been asked, but how would y’all feel if Marrok was just Marrok?,” said defender_76. “He’s got a cool look already. I feel any of the theorized reveals may be bad for the show’s pacing, but I can see people being disappointed if all the theories went nowhere.”
While most Inquisitors are already established, a handful of others have been seen but not named in the Star Wars comics. While the Sith are named Fourth Brother, Sixth Sister, and so on, a First Brother or Sister so far doesn’t exist, leaving further room open for Marrok.
It won’t be too long before fans find out though as new episodes of Ahsoka are streaming weekly on Disney+. Its premiere is on track with Andor but down 50% from the premiere of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but the decrease is perhaps unsurprising since the 2022 show featured the return of one of the Prequel Trilogy’s biggest characters.
One beloved prequel character is all but confirmed to return in Ahsoka, however, which may attract a more mainstream Star Wars audience. The titular character has mainly appeared in animated shows until now, including The Clone Wars and Rebels, though did make a brief appearance in The Mandalorian Season 2.
In our 7/10 review of the first two episodes, IGN said: “Dave Filoni’s new Disney+ series Ahsoka has plenty of action but still gets off to a slow start by getting viewers up to speed with the events of Star Wars Rebels.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
