Star Wars: How the Distant Future Reveals the Dark Fate of Coruscant
There are millions if not billions of planets sprinkled across Star Wars’ sprawling galaxy, with the one-time Jedi stronghold, Coruscant, playing a major role in multiple eras of this sci-fi franchise's story in both its comic and live-action spaces. But in Star Wars’ distant future, Coruscant isn’t what fans remember, becoming a twisted reflection of what it once stood for as a beacon of light in a universe full of darkness.
Introduced onscreen in the 1997 re-release of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi and going on to play a prominent role in all three Star Wars prequel films, Coruscant is a planet-sized city that acted as the center of the galaxy during its heyday while also headquartering the then still-active Jedi Order.
Star Wars Legends continuity showed the eventual fate of Coruscant, with the planet brought close to total ruination by the Yuuzhan Vong army. Some time after the Original Trilogy era, the deadly group invaded and altered the planet, with the effects seen over various Star Wars novels, starting with Troy Denning's The New Jedi Order:Star by Star, set in 27 ABY. The Yuuzhan Vong forcibly changed Coruscant's orbit, bringing it closer to the Sun and reshaping its landscape to serve their needs - and that was just the beginning. In 2006's Star Wars: Legacy #0, the franchise showcases the state of the planet in 137 ABY.
Coruscant Was Terraformed and Controlled by Multiple Evil Factions in Star Wars Legends
Star Wars: Legacy #0 - 2006 (John Ostrander, Jan Duursema, Sean Cooke, and Dan Parsons)
Custom Image by Debanjana Chowdhury
Set over a century after the fall of Emperor Palpatine, pre-Legacy lore saw the Vong take control of Coruscant and make it their throne-world, terraforming it into a more jungle-like biome, renaming it Yuuzhan'tar, adjusting its orbit for the worse, and finally crushing one of its moons to make a 'rainbow bridge.' Eventually losing their dominion over the planet to Emperor Roan Fel and his Galactic Empire, Coruscant was then obtained by Darth Krayt, who retrofitted the world into the home base of his One Sith operations, changing Coruscant in a multitude of ways that it never truly recovered from.
As a set-up to the Legacy series, Star Wars: Legacy #0 introduced concept art, character bios, and lore summary, showing how the many years of new history covered in Legends novels and comics transformed Coruscant. The once proud world is now a patchwork of scars and alterations left behind by its various occupiers, with new biomes clashing and combining. Mentioning how Coruscant still bears the "scars of devastation" from its Vong takeover, this issue explains how "the Rings of Coruscant remain a popular tourist destination," with these Legacy-exclusive changes making it clear that Coruscant is now more of a galactic curio than a thriving world.
Coruscant Became a Hellish World Thanks to Decades of Occupation
Star Wars Legends Charted Over a Century of New Lore, With Coruscant Bearing the Brunt
After the death of Darth Krayt, the dissolution of the One Sith, and the ending of Star Wars: Legacy, it’s safe to say that Coruscant will no longer be used for evil. Yet when it comes to Coruscant’s ultimate fate post-Legacy, its destiny is still up in the air, leaving the planet forever changed in unfortunate but still incredibly fascinating ways that current Star Wars canon could potentially run with someday. While this dark lore change only happened in Legends canon, Coruscant is still an iconic planet in Star Wars, and it's possible that future canon will chart a similar path.
Star Wars: Legacy #0 is available from Dark Horse/Marvel Comics.
- Created by
- George Lucas
- First Film
- Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope
- Cast
- Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, David Prowse, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor, Rosario Dawson, Lars Mikkelsen, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Frank Oz, Pedro Pascal
- TV Show(s)
- The Mandalorian, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Lando, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Resistance, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, Star Wars: Visions
- Movie(s)
- Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi, Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, Star Wars: New Jedi Order
- Character(s)
- Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Rey Skywalker, Emperor Palpatine / Darth Sidious, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Grand Inquisitor, Reva (The Third Sister), The Fifth Brother, The Seventh Sister, The Eighth Brother, Yoda, Din Djarin, Grogu, Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader, Leia Organa, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren
