The Galactic Empire ofStar Warsfame remains one of the most evil organizations in fictional history. They cover all the major methods of spreading darkness, from widespread oppression to constant militarism. The forces of space-fascism aren’t content with regular violence. They also work tirelessly to innovate groundbreaking new forms of cutting-edge evil. Project Necromancer is one of the most mysterious and important elements of the Empire’s mad science, with the aim of keeping the monster at the top alive forever.
One of the thankless tasks ofStar Wars’s television effortsis explaining creative decisions that appear in the movies. There are considerable leaps in time between each trilogy, which allows for countless smaller stories in the massive galaxy that could occasionally fill in some cracks in the narrative. When these shows only exist to answer open questions, they tend to feel like a waste. Thankfully, they also tend to be the most consistent home for new and interesting ideas in the franchise.
What was Project Necromancer?
Project Necromancer was the secret Empire science initiative to perfect a method of cloning subjects while maintaining or transferring their midi-chlorians, or M-count. Cloning technology gave the Galactic Republic its mighty clone army, which turned out to be an intricate scheme thateventually destroyed the Republic and installed the Empire. Once Emperor Palpatine took over, the oppressive new government decommissioned the previous clone army in favor of conscripted beings from across the galaxy. The Empire didn’t abandon cloning altogether, however. Though cloning was a fairly safe and consistent science, it was unable to directly replicate a subject’s M-count. This means that a clone of a Force-sensitive being wouldn’t maintain the original organism’s connection to the Force. Project Necromancer would gradually uncover a means of creating M-count-rich clones. The eventual goal of the process would be tocreate clones of Emperor Palpatine, granting the Sith Lord the immortality his predecessors failed to attain.
Who ran Project Necromancer?
The main medical mind on Project Necromancer was Doctor Royce Hemlock, who worked tirelessly out of a hidden base within Mount Tantiss on a planet called Wayland. Hemlock was a notable scientist in the Galactic Republic era, but his unethical experiments lost him his position. Palpatine scooped him up after the Empire took over, granting him any and all resources he’d need to make Project Necromancer a success. Hemlock’s unwilling second-in-commandwas Nala Se, the formerchief medical scientist of Kamino. Her people, the Kaminoans, created the Republic’s clone army. To avoid any further use of their facilities, the Empire destroyed Kamino, saving only Nala Se to use her advanced knowledge for their own ends. To keep Se under the Empire’s thumb, they kept custody of her assistant, an unaltered clone of Jango Fett named Omega. Together, they performed countless blood tests and grew new bodies to perfect the art of M-count transfer.
Did Project Necromancer succeed?
Project Necromancer probably worked, but some of the details are still missing. As everyStar Warsfan knows,Palpatine is the antagonistofThe Rise of Skywalker. The decision to bring him back is mired in details beyond the film’s narrative, but the in-universe justification remains iconic. Poe simply stands above a crowd and utters the immortal line, “Somehow Palpatine returned.” Hemlock and Se’s research on Project Necromancer helped to make that happen, but it took a lot longer than expected. The key to Project Necromancer turned out to be Omega, whose blood coincidentally contains chemical properties that make it a perfect “transfer binder.” To achieve M-count transfer without overwriting a clone’s DNA, they have to use some quantity of Omega’s blood to hold everything together. Nala Se hid that knowledge from Hemlock for months, consistently swapping Omega’s blood samples. Hemlock only learned the truth after Nala Se helped a team of clone troopers abscond with Omega. The Empire briefly recaptured her, only to lose her again. Nala Se sacrificed her life to destroy Project Necromancer’s data, and Hemlock died in thefight to free Omega, leaving the Empire to scuttle the project and shift funding elsewhere.
After the Empire fell, its remnants relaunched Project Necromancer with questionable results. It became the pet project of Commandant Brendol Hux,father of First OrderGeneral Armitage Hux. This new take on Project Necromancer hasn’t appeared much in the franchise. It’s only brought up inThe Mandalorianseason 3. The stated end goal is to establish the original leadership’s continued reign over the remaining scraps of the Empire.
Project Necromancer definitely failed in its initial incarnation, but it may have provided the basis of what eventually brought back Palpatine. Like most Imperial science projects,the body count was considerable, several subjects suffered horribly, many of the participants were unwilling, and the end result was questionable at best. Palpatine definitely returned, but it’s hard to say whether Project Necromancer fills in the question that sentence raises.
