Warning! This post contains SPOILERS for The Bad Batch season 3
Summary
- Project Necromancer aimed to grant Palpatine immortality through secret cloning experiments, confirmed by The Bad Batch season 3.
- Cloned bodies struggle with Force sensitivity and deterioration, posing challenges to the success of Project Necromancer and Palpatine's resurrection after death.
- Project Necromancer continued after Palpatine's death into the New Republic Era, only achieving partial success in his resurrection as seen in the sequel trilogy with The Rise of Skywalker.
Palpatine's resurrection in The Rise of Skywalker. Star Wars has often told stories out of order, after all, and this one was simply begging to be told.
Project Necromancer had been subtly teased since The Mandalorian season 1, and Star Wars: The Bad Batch season 3, episodes 1-3 have finally revealed the last details. Now, it's possible to put together a rough timeline of Project Necromancer, its partial success, and the ultimate good it left behind for the Star Wars galaxy. Here's everything known to date.
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What Is Project Necromancer
The Resurrection Of Emperor Palpatine Via Cloning
The Bad Batch season 3, episodes 1-3 officially confirm that Project Necromancer is a secret cloning project conducted to prolong Emperor Palpatine's life. The Emperor never had any intention of ascribing to the dark side Force power and advanced technology; Palpatine intends to transfer his spirit to a ready clone host body if and when his own is ever destroyed.
The Bad Batch season 3 has confirmed that Project Necromancer was put into place decades before Palpatine was killed in Return of the Jedi. This also s all the teases from The Mandalorian as well as Marvel Comics' canonical Darth Vader series that the Emperor likely sought to extend his life and "secure the future of the Empire" from the moment he claimed his throne in the wake of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. However, the creation of viable clone bodies for Palpatine to possess after death proved to be quite difficult.
Why Cloning Force-Sensitives Is So Difficult
Deterioration and Low M-Counts
It makes sense why Palpatine devoted so much resources to Project Necromancer, seeing it as a critical key to his own survival and that of his Empire.
According to The Bad Batch season 3's premiere, the core problem lies with Midi-chlorians - the organisms introduced in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, which help beings connect to the Force. Midi-chlorians cannot be cloned, but instead must be extracted from another living being and implanted within a clone - thereby increasing a clone body's "M-count." Unfortunately, it seems the host bodies often reject these Midi-chlorians, resulting in significant and rapid degeneration.
It's currently unclear why cloned bodies struggle to hold meaningful M-counts, but it likely has to do with the artificial nature of the body's creation - and the fact the procedure would be contrary to the will of the Force itself. Palpatine's goal is to learn to subvert this, to discover a way to implant Midi-chlorians within a clone. In theory, he could even implant more Midi-chlorians than the original body started out with, thus boosting his powers when he inhabited the clone.
Wayland Was Palpatine's Secret Cloning Facility During The Dark Times
Doctor Hemlock And The Advanced Science Division
During the Dark Times of the Empire's reign, Project Necromancer was being conducted on the planet Wayland at a secret Imperial black site hidden within Mount Tantiss, a location from Star Wars Legends which was also a secret cloning facility. Home to the Empire's Advanced Science Division, Project Necromancer is being run by Doctor Hemlock with assistance from the Kaminoan Nala Se and an entire team of cloning engineers. Using legions of imprisoned clone troopers as test subjects, Hemlock had Palpatine's full to solve the inherent challenges behind viable Force-sensitive bodies during this era in the Star Wars timeline.
Project Necromancer Continued After Palpatine's Death In Return Of The Jedi
Led By The First Order's Brendol Hux
The confirmation that Project Necromancer is about orchestrating Palpatine's resurrection in The Bad Batch season 3 perfectly fits with dialogue from The Mandalorian season 3, episode 7 and the meeting of the Imperial Remnant's Shadow Council. There, Captain Pellaeon discussed the Imperial Remnant's future strategies:
"But that strength must not be wasted. Grand iral Thrawn’s return will herald in the reemergence of our military, and provide Commandant Hux enough time to deliver on Project Necromancer."
This means Grand iral Thrawn's return in Ahsoka is all about buying the Imperial Remnant the time to resurrect Palpatine. The experiments are continuing deep in the Unknown Regions, now led by Brendol Hux and Grand iral Rae Sloane. It seems as though Project Necromancer will go undetected for decades thanks to Thrawn leading up to the events of the sequel trilogy.
Project Necromancer Was Only Partially Successful
Problems With M-Counts
The Empire spent decades working on Project Necromancer, but it was only a partial success. While Palpatine was able to transfer his consciousness to cloned bodies, these would still deteriorate and diminish over time. This is why Palpatiine had a decayed appearance in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, with his cloned body so fragile he could not even leave the Sith world of Exegol. Supreme Leader Snoke, meanwhile, was a strandcast - a genetically-engineered being - whose disfigurations were likely due to the host body rejecting the Midi-chlorians.
Project Necromancer's Past Failures Accidentally Created Rey
Dathan Was A Failed Genetic Strandcast
It's also important to note that the past failures of Project Necromancer led to the ultimate good for the Star Wars galaxy. Rey Skywalker's father Dathan was a genetic strandcast with a low M-count, meaning he was seen as a failure. However, Dathan eventually escaped and had a child with a woman he fell in love with named Miramir.
Having been born naturally with a high M-count, Rey became key to Palpatine's plans when he learned of her existence, especially following the confirmation that she was part of a powerful Force dad with Ben Solo. While Palpatine could have gained the strength he'd long desired by draining Rey's power, he was ultimately defeated, ironically by an inadvertent product of his own design thanks to Project Necromancer in the Star Wars canon.
The Bad Batch season 3 is streaming now on Disney+
Star Wars: The Bad Batch
- Release Date
- 2021 - 2024-00-00
- Showrunner
- Dave Filoni
- Directors
- Brad Rau, Steward Lee, Nathaniel Villanueva, Saul Ruiz
Cast
Michelle Ang
WHERE TO WATCH
Star Wars: The Bad Batch is an action-adventure animated series set after the events of The Clone Wars, following Clone Force 99 (a.k.a. the Bad Batch.) Finding themselves immune to the brainwashing effects of Order 66, the Bad Batch become mercenaries for hire while outrunning the empire, now seeing them as fugitives of the law.
- Writers
- Jennifer Corbett, Dave Filoni, Matt Michnovetz, Tamara Becher, Amanda Rose Munoz, Gursimran Sandhu, Christian Taylor, Damani Johnson
- Franchise(s)
- Star Wars
- Seasons
- 3
- Creator(s)
- Dave Filoni, Jennifer Corbett
- Where To Watch
- Disney+
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