‘Star Wars’ Reveals What Happened to Palpatine’s Resurrection Project and Why It’s Not Complete in ‘The Mandalorian’

Project Necromancer is Palpatine’s plan to rule indefinitely, a one-way trip consisting of using Kaminoan cloning technology to live forever. In ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’, Darth Sidious returns from the dead, although the movie does not explain how he did this, as the Emperor himself merely comments that he returned by methods “some would consider unnatural”. However, products such as ‘The Bad Batch’ and ‘The Mandalorian’ have begun to unravel the details of this strategy. The series starring Din Djarin and Grogu suggests that the project was not completed after ‘Return of the Jedi’, but why?

In both the old Expanded Universe and current canon, Sheev is doing his best to resurrect Palpatine. Project Necromancer was set in motion during the early years of his reign as Emperor, as shown in the animated series The Bad Batch. This product delves into the cloning experiments that took place on Mount Tantiss, the same location where Sidious had his cloning lab in Legends. What happened to prevent the project from being completed in those years?

This article contains spoilers for the final episode of “The Bad Batch.

Omega, a special clone as unique as the other members of Squadron 99, is one of the keys to unraveling Project Necromancer. The Galactic Empire needs subjects with blood midichlorian levels sufficient to sustain the cloning of Darth Sidious. For this reason, she has been imprisoned on Mount Tantiss with other Force-sensitive children. Trained by her brothers, the young girl does not hesitate to use all her skills to escape. Meanwhile, the head of Project Hemlock orders blood samples to be taken from them.

Hunter, Wrecker, Crosshair, and Echo come to the rescue, while Omega sets in motion a plan to escape once and for all. The girl unleashes a giant beast that wreaks havoc on the base, opening an entry point for the squadron. Then the prisoners are liberated, and Rampart - ex-imperial - is released from prison and becomes an unexpectedly pivotal figure. Nala Se, the Kaminoan scientist behind the cloning technology, is determined to destroy his work and bring down Project Necromancer. In a twist of events, Rampart follows her to the lab and decides to blackmail her into giving him information about the project. However, Nala Se activates a thermal detonator and blows everything up (including herself).

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Hemlock is killed in the attack, and The Bad Batch escapes with his life. At the end of the series, Governor Tarkin - later Grand Moff Tarkin - decides to shut down Project Necromancer and divert all resources to the Death Star project. There is still a connection between the events of ‘The Bad Batch’ and ‘The Mandalorian’ and many questions to be answered, such as how the project was revived and what Palpatine did. After all, Project Necromancer was the Emperor’s top priority Imperial plan.

Star War: The Bad Batch is now available in its entirety on Disney+.