***Star Wars ***has long been known for its major retcons. In fact, as early as the original trilogy, *Star Wars *movies and TV shows were rewriting pre-established canon, with the revelation that Darth Vader was really Luke Skywalker’s father, Anakin Skywalker, in *The Empire Strikes Back *being one of the earliest and, even decades later, most significant of all. Of course, not all retcons have been popular. Palpatine’s resurrection in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, for example, remains one of the biggest grievances fans have with the entire franchise.
Even choices that eventually proved popular, such as the introduction of Ahsoka Tano in the *Star Wars: The Clone Wars *movie, were met with backlash at first—in that case, because the prequel trilogy had never mentioned any such Padawan for Anakin, so many felt that it was undercutting Anakin’s story and changing canon too significantly. (Ultimately, though Ahsoka grew to be seen as one of *Star Wars’ *best characters by many).
However, arguably more often than not, *Star Wars’ *retcons have been done for a good reason, and many have paid off. The *Star Wars: The Clone Wars *TV show was certainly high on the list of *Star Wars *projects that made excellent use of retcons, from the clone inhibitor chips to the resurrection of Darth Maul—which is the sole reason the *Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord *show can now exist. Yet, there was one villain decision made in *The Clone Wars *that was just as good, and this character wasn’t a Sith at all.
Among the villains who had repeat appearances in *The Clone Wars *was General Grievous, the cyborg-like Separatist who created plenty of problems for Anakin, Obi-Wan, and the larger Republic and Jedi Order. However, prior to The Clone Wars, Grievous had a relatively limited role. He had appeared in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, and he had actually had his debut in the non-canon animated show Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003), but that was it.
That was a shame, in part because Grievous was one of the most fascinating *Star Wars *villains on screen, especially at that time. For that reason, when *The Clone Wars *brought Grievous back in the very first season in 2008 and featured him as a central villain, it was a thrilling update to Grievous’ story and to the prequel trilogy era more generally. In fact, it was only in *The Clone Wars *that Grievous really proved just how formidable a military strategist he was.
As mentioned, Grievous was an incredibly unique addition to *Star Wars’ *villains, especially in the early to mid-2000s. Up to that point, there were evil Imperial officers like Governor Tarkin and other minor villains like Nute Gunray, but it was primarily the Sith who dominated the franchise. In Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Maul was introduced as the new Sith, and following on his heels was Count Dooku in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones.
Yet, Grievous came along not as a Jedi or a Sith but rather as an evil character who wanted to bring down the Jedi and the Republic and actually posed a serious threat. Even better, despite not having any Force-sensitivity, Grievous was able to wield lightsabers—four at once, to be exact. And because he had been trained by Count Dooku himself, he was actually fairly skilled. *The Clone Wars *helped to bring those unique traits to life even more, giving audiences so much more time with this one-of-a-kind villain.
What’s more, Grievous still makes the cut as one of *Star Wars’ *most unique villains. In the time since his canon debut in Revenge of the Sith and his return in The Clone Wars, villains like Thrawn and Moff Gideon have hit the *Star Wars *screen (after the former had been introduced in the books long before). For the most part, though, ***Star Wars ***still struggles to move away from the Sith, which only makes it all the clearer that giving General Grievous significantly more screen time was completely the right call.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars ](/db/tv-show/star-wars-the-clone-wars/)
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Science Fiction
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2008 - 2020-00-00
Cartoon Network, Netflix, Disney+
Brian Kalin O’Connell, Steward Lee, Giancarlo Volpe, Bosco Ng, Danny Keller, Rob Coleman, Justin Ridge, Nathaniel Villanueva, Saul Ruiz, Jesse Yeh, Duwayne Dunham, Atsushi Takeuchi, Robert Dalva, Walter Murch
Katie Lucas, Christian Taylor, Brent V. Friedman, Matt Michnovetz, Drew Z. Greenberg, Steven Melching, Chris Collins, Charles Murray, Eoghan Mahony, Bonnie Mark, Craig W. Van Sickle, Daniel Arkin, Jose Molina, Steven Long Mitchell, Cameron Litvack, George Krstic, Carl Ellsworth, Craig Titley, Julie Siege, Jonathan W. Rinzler, Ben Edlund, Douglas Petrie, Kevin D. Campbell, Kevin Rubio
Narrator / Yoda / Medical Droid / Yularen / Kraken (voice)
Anakin Skywalker (voice)