2019 is shaping up to be a banner year for the Star Wars franchise as it continues to expand and grow with feature films, video games, animated series and the debut of the very first live-action Star Wars series, The Mandalorian, coming this November to Disney+.
With the upcoming series starring an unnamed gunslinger from the franchise's famous world of Mandalore, the story may offer a more extensive view of the toughest warrior society in the Star Wars Universe... and one of the franchise's most mythical weapons.
Of all the iconic armaments and spacecraft to come from Mandalorian culture, the oldest and most fabled is the Darksaber, a sinister variation on the familiar lightsaber. The history behind this legendary weapon stretches back for millennia in the Star Wars Universe and has claimed the lives of countless Jedi, adding to its bloody legacy.
The Darksaber is an ancient, black-bladed lightsaber shorter than its traditional counterparts and, when lit, resembles a conventional blade due to its ethereal white border emanating from the core of the ignited weapon.
The Darksaber was constructed over a thousand years before the events of A New Hope by Tarre Vizsla, the first ever Mandalorian to be inducted into the Jedi Order. Following Vizsla's death, the Darksaber was stored in the Jedi Temple along with the other lightsabers of deceased Jedi, but, following a war between Mandalore and the Old Republic, the weapon was stolen and brought back to Vizsla's home planet by fellow Mandalorians.
For centuries, the Darksaber would be passed down to new generations of House Vizsla, growing in legend as the Mandalorian clan used it to kill all who opposed them, including Jedi, firmly establishing the House of Vizsla as one of Mandalore's most prominent families.
By the time the Clone Wars had engulfed the entire galaxy in a war between the Old Republic and the Separatists led by Darth Sidious and Count Dooku, the Darksaber was in the possession of the Vizsla family patriarch Pre Vizsla, Governor of Concordia and leader of Mandalore's elite Death Watch, a Mandalorian extremist organization.
As the Clone Wars spread, Obi-Wan Kenobi traveled to Concordia, where he discovered the Death Watch active by the planet's valuable mines. Exposed, Vizsla fights Obi-Wan to a standstill with the Darksaber to buy his unit time to escape before fleeing himself, unable to match the Jedi Master's superior lightsaber skills.
Setting up a new base of operations on the Outer Rim world of Carlac, Ahsoka Tano and her friend Lux Bonteri discover the hidden Death Watch and attempt to defend the planet's inhabitants from the Mandalorians, with Ahsoka engaging Vizsla in a duel, damaging his jetpack and forcing him to withdraw once more.
Entering a secret pact with a revived Darth Maul and his brother Savage Opress' syndicate the Shadow Collective, Vizsla uses them to gain prestige and power over Mandalore before betraying and imprisoning the two Dathomirian brothers.
Upon his escape, Maul duels Vizsla, with the Mandalorian employing the Darksaber. Ultimately, Vizsla is defeated and executed by Maul with his own ancestor's blade. The Sith warrior would continue to wield his own red lightsaber in tandem with the Darksaber, even dueling his former master, Darth Sidious, with the two weapons, though ultimately unable to defeat him while retaining his control over Mandalore.
By the start of Star Wars Rebels, the Darksaber is being kept on Maul's home planet of Dathomir, in a secluded cave haunted by the spirits of the mystical Nightsisters. When the Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren grabs the weapon, she becomes possessed by the Nightsisters and attacks Ezra Bridger, who is forced to defend himself with his lightsaber.
The two fight until Ezra destroys the altar on which the Darksaber had rested, dispelling the Nightsisters' spirits and restoring Sabine's senses. After training Sabine how to use a lightsaber, the team travels to Mandalore to get the planet to rally behind the House Wren and join the fledgling Rebel Alliance.
Driving Imperial forces from the planet, Sabine turns over the Darksaber to Bo-Katan, who pledges to lead her clan with the weapon that claimed her sister's life and restore order to Mandalore.
The Darksaber is an ancient weapon carrying significant influence and cultural importance with Mandalorians all over the galaxy. With a dark history stretching far beyond the prequel trilogy, the blade has figured prominently in two different Star Wars animated series.
With a Mandalorian starring in the first live-action Star Wars series, the possibility of the Darksaber making its live-action debut is an enticing one given the weapon's legacy and significance in Mandalorian culture. With its whereabouts after Star Wars Rebels unknown, the mythical blade could grant its new wielder control of Mandalore and potentially play a major role in the upcoming series.
The Mandalorian, created by Jon Favreau and starring Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito, Emily Swallow, Omid Abtahi, Werner Herzog and Nick Nolte, will hit Disney+ on Nov. 12.