4,000 years before the Empire was founded, Darth Revan was the most badass Star Wars character, bar none. And if some kind of long-shot Netflix show based on the popular Old Republic games were to miraculously happen, it should definitely focus on the conflicted Sith Lord’s exploits.
Earlier this week, MoviePilot.com reported on a petition created by Jasmine St-Philippe calling for Netflix to produce a Star Wars series focused on the time of the Old Republic. The most convincing piece of the petition’s language is: “The Old Republic era is a pivotal point in the Star Wars timeline because that’s where everything changed, from the Jedi Civil War and the fall of Revan, the First Jedi Purge, and an omnipresent darkness that not only watched the chaos from afar but also kick-started the downfall.”
Revan was a Force-wielder known as the Prodigal Knight, who turned into the Dark Lord of the Sith sometimes feared as “the Butcher.” But to his friends he just went by Revan. He has almost as many names as Daenerys on Game of Thrones and an arguably more colorful past, and yes, he’s the coolest Star Wars character that you’ve probably never heard of.
This recent surge of enthusiasm is no doubt spurred partially on by the recently released trailer for The Old Republic’s latest expansion, “Betrayed,” a continuation of the iconic MMO that let anyone be a Jedi or Sith. While this newest trailer is great — particularly for its 1v6 lightsaber battle royale — and the five-year-old MMO has a history of equally as great trailers, the petitioners need to focus their demands: Revan is the Chosen One to bring balance to our Old Republic-Netflix hopes and dreams.
He was a human Jedi that played important roles in the Mandalorian War and Jedi Civil War. In a time when the Galactic Republic was fighting with the Mandalorian warrior clans and the Jedi Council tried to go all neutral-Switzerland, Revan started the “Revanchist” movement of Jedi Crusaders to help the Republic. The mask he eventually wore — one that looks an awful lot like the hefty one Kylo Ren wears — was that of a dead Mandalorian, the same people he was fighting.
Parallel to all this was Revan’s bromance with Alek, who took the name Malak when he went Sith. Theirs was a bromance akin to Gilgamesh-Enkidu or perhaps even Steve-Bucky. But, they turned to the dark side and created a superweapon called the Star Forge that literally ate stars and puked out an endless supply of ships, droids, weapons, etc. Darths Revan and Malak decided to take on the Sith, the Jedi Council, and the Galactic Republic on their own. But wait, it gets better: Malak would go on to betray Revan, who was then captured by the Jedi. On the brink of death, he had his mind wiped by Jedi Master Bastila Shan.
In the events of 2003’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game for Xbox, you play as the amnesiac blank-slate Revan on a journey to restore balance to the Force; basically, he was the Chosen One before it was cool.
So, if you sign the petition to convince Disney to make some part of The Old Republic into a real show, just be sure you mention that Revan is the only way this all could work.
