It’s been two decades since we heard the cautionary tale of a being who tried to master death. What we’ve learned – and haven’t – since. 

Decades before we heard the dead speak from the galaxy’s Unknown Regions, a master manipulator masquerading as an empathetic politician regaled a young, war-torn soldier, consumed by love and a desire to live up to his chosen one namesake, with a tale about a being powerful enough to keep loved ones from dying. He could create life and save others, but he couldn’t save himself from his worst fear – death. Teaching his apprentice all he had learned was his ultimate downfall.

This year marks 20 years since the release of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, the grand and tragic finale to a polarizing trilogy of films that chronicled the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker. The official anniversary is May 19th, but Lucasfilm began its limited rerelease of the film over a month later on April 24. In one week, the Revenge of the Sith secured its place as one of the top-grossing rereleases of all time. Worldwide, it earned over $46 million.

When Darth Sidious, still Supreme Chancellor Palpatine at the end of the Clone Wars in the film, shared the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis the Wise with Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, it was a deceitful invitation. Perhaps more than anyone, even Skywalker’s former master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Palpatine knew the Jedi’s deepest desires and fears. Sidious stoked those fears into anger and obsession, positioning himself as the only person who could fix Skywalker’s problems.

Darth Plagueis’ story was a Sith legend – one not known outside of dark side circles. Even then, because of the Darth Bane-established Rule of Two, it’s safe to assume the story was known by only one person – the apprentice who killed Plagueis, Darth Sidious. 

Hearing the Tragedy of Darth Plagueis was a catalyst moment for Skywalker, who had been subtly coached, mentored, and manipulated by Sidious over the years. After killing Count Dooku at Palpatine’s encouragement, the moment at the Galaxies Opera House was the next big step Skywalker took to the dark side and to becoming Sidious’s apprentice.

But who was Darth Plagueis? Can we trust the details of the story Palpatine/Sidious provided, considering he was the one who killed Plagueis? Did he truly discover the means to create life and conquer death? What did Sidious and Darth Vader learn from him?

Details are scant – at least in the current Star Wars canon – but key parts of the Sith legend were uncovered on Exegol following the destruction of Palpatine and the Sith Eternal’s Final Order. Thanks to Dr. Chris Kempshall’s The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire – an in-universe political history of the Skywalker Saga – we have more clues about who Plagueis was. There are also revealing details in the official Star Wars databank and reference books like Secrets of the Sith and The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire.

In the Legends continuity – formerly the Expanded Universe – Plagueis’s and Palpatine’s origins are chronicled in the decades-spanning novel Darth Plagueis by James Luceno. The book is dark and dense, exploring the Muun Sith Lord’s origins and death-defying legacy through a dizzying amount of broader galactic connections. Plagueis’ and eventually Palpatine’s machinations prove to have butterfly effects on the galaxy and the “chosen one” who was supposed to bring balance to the Force. 

Plagueis was obsessed with achieving immortality, and he taught his apprentice everything he learned from his master and his experiments with midichlorians. He also molded Palpatine into Sidious through over a decade of training in the ways of the Sith, including the Rule of Two. And just as Plagueis killed his own master, the Sith Lord was overpowered and destroyed by Palpatine.

Many big and small details from Darth Plagueis could fit nicely into canon. While the 2012 novel isn’t considered canon, Plagueis’ first mention in 2005’s Revenge of the Sith is. The Muun dark sider has also been briefly mentioned in various novels and reference titles. It wasn’t until The Acolyte that Plagueis made his first appearance.

In The Acolyte, set in the later High Republic era (100 years before The Phantom Menace), Plagueis watched over Osha (Amandla Stenberg) and the Stranger (Manny Jacinto), also known as Qimir, on an unknown planet. His appearance all but confirmed Qimir’s connections to the Sith and that Plagueis was already working against the Jedi in the shadows a century before the fall of the Order. Unfortunately, without another season of The Acolyte, we don’t know if or how we’ll get answers about Plagueis’ presence and machinations during this period.

Jacinto has been open about how, if The Acolyte had not been canceled, the show would have expanded upon Plagueis’ story. At FanExpo San Francisco in December 2024, the actor said there was going to be more Plagueis “in the second, or if not, the third seasons of the show.”

In a recent interview with Variety, Ian McDiarmid, who portrayed Palpatine in all of the Star Wars movies since Return of the Jedi, touched on the rumored Palpatine series that never came to fruition. When asked if any of the backstory was shared with him, he said “just the story of Darth Plagueis the Wise.” 

It’s unclear if we’ll ever see Palpatine or Plagueis on screen again. Luckily, novels and reference books continue to provide much-needed details about these beloved, secretive characters.

Palpatine’s musings in Secrets of the Sith – written as a juicy, in-universe tell-all – revealed Plagueis discovered ways to use the Force to create and sustain life. The Sith lord taught his apprentice the method of transference – transferring one consciousness to another physical organic vessel. Through Plagueis’ teachings and Kaminoan cloning technology, Palpatine achieved near immortality. The Darth Sidious who continued to manipulate the galaxy through the First and Final Orders was an imperfect clone of the original but contained the consciousness of the fallen Emperor.

Like his apprentice, Plagueis was intrigued by the extraordinarily rare connection in the Force known as a dyad. In Secrets of the Sith, Sidious revealed that his master tried to create the dyad bond with him. Later, Palpatine attempted to forge a dyad between himself and Anakin Skywalker. Neither Sith Lord accomplished the goal. The interest in forcibly creating a dyad – naturally manifested between Rey Skywalker and Ben Solo – was tied to the bond’s ability to create power as strong as life itself.  

Written by Resistance historian Beaumont Kin (Dominic Monaghan), The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire details some of the records and artifacts uncovered on Exegol after the events of The Rise of Skywalker. Key information about Plagueis was uncovered from the Arcane Library – found in the planet’s temple, which was home to the Sith Eternal. The scrolls and writings, reportedly dictated by Palpatine, confirm Plagueis’ existence and that he spent much of his Sith Lord life trying to uncover the secrets of immortality.

Still, little is known about Plagueis’ life and Palpatine’s training under him. Because of the extremely secretive and deceptive nature of the Sith, few trustworthy records exist. With projects like The Acolyte and other stories that take place in the years before the prequels, there’s hope of learning more about Plagueis and just how far back in history the downfall of the Jedi Order began.

The lore could be expanded soon thanks to the upcoming novel Star Wars: Master of Evil by Adam Christopher – the author behind Shadow of the Sith. Christopher’s latter book fills in crucial gaps of the sequel stories, in particular, Rey’s parentage and Palpatine’s cloning experiments on Exegol. 

Master of Evil, releasing on November 11th 2025, takes us back decades to the earliest days of the Empire through Darth Vader’s perspective. The novel is expected to take place around the same time as the 2017 Marvel comic run by Charles Soule – specifically, what Vader does after bleeding a kyber crystal for his new lightsaber and getting a vision about the Force’s power over life and death.

Like his master and his master’s master, Vader becomes consumed with discovering the power to conquer death – spurred on by his increasingly sadistic master and haunted by the failures of his past.

This book is about Vader, but as with any dark side story, there’s hope for more crumbs about Plagueis and the Sith power that brought down a galaxy.