Although he’d already been introduced in the original 2D-animated Clone Wars series, General Grievous (Matthew Wood) rocketed to Star Wars fame in 2005 after his live-action debut in Revenge of the Sith. For many fans (myself included), his death in that same movie served as a huge disappointment. Grievous immediately stuck out for his incredible character design, unique voice, and compellingly mysterious backstory. Although the 3D Clone Wars would continue to flesh out his timeline in the period between the final two installments of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, the fact that his death had already been showcased meant Grievous’ story could only go so far.
However, more than two decades since he was taken down by Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) on Utapau, Star Wars has finally managed to unveil a suitable replacement for the iconic lightsaber collector. There’s a very interesting twist, though. The character in question has already been part of the franchise for over a decade. He’s never before been framed as a successor to Grievous, but the new trailer for a returning Star Wars project has confirmed that he fits surprisingly neatly into his predecessor’s shoes. Looking back, I’m a little annoyed I didn’t see this coming.
‘Ahsoka’ Season 2 Arms Professor Huyang With Four Lightsabers (Just Like Grievous)
Although most Star Wars lightsaber wielders are content with just one weapon, certain fighting styles are better suited to dual-wielding. For example, Ahsoka favors using two lightsabers at once, as does Aayla Secura. Wielding four individual lightsabers simultaneously is far less common, as most species in the Star Wars universe have just two arms. So, when Grievous’ cybernetic upgrades were revealed to allow this during his duel with Obi-Wan in Revenge of the Sith, it was a huge game-changer. No other character since Grievous has done this, although the four-armed Pong Krell came closest in The Clone Wars, as the fearsome Besalisk boasted two dual-bladed lightsabers.
Grievous was never a Force-sensitive being. As a droid, Huyang is also incapable of communing with the Force.
So, the on-screen unveiling of Huyang going full Grievous in the Ahsoka Season 2 trailer finally gives Star Wars a suitable replacement for the character. Of course, we’ve known for a while that Professor Huyang (David Tennant) has been capable of this for a while, but we’ve never seen it. In Ahsoka Season 1, the ancient droid is shown training Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), with his two additional arms extended, allowing him to hold four training devices resembling lightsabers that are designed to aid in strengthening his student’s form. Ahsoka Season 2, however, is the first time we’ve ever actually seen him wield a lightsaber, let alone four. We’ve seen him in combat before, but never anything beyond hand-to-hand.
Why Professor Huyang Is So Different From General Grievous
Despite their shared talent for quad-wielding lightsabers, Huyang and Grievous would struggle to be any more different. Other than one being a villain and the other being aligned with the heroes, the biggest thing to point out is that, although Grievous looks like a droid at first glance, he isn’t. Canonically, he’s a member of the Kaleesh race, and a near-fatal crash in a shuttle craft resulted in his being rebuilt with cybernetic technology to keep him alive. The body parts he lost to injury were rebuilt and/or upgraded. Kaleesh only have two arms, and so he wasn’t born with the additional two he’s most known for having.
Huyang, on the other hand, was built as a droid and has never had any biological components. He’s also much, much older than Grievous. Huyang was constructed by the Jedi around 25,000 years before the events of Ahsoka, and has long taught generations of younglings how to build their own lightsabers when the time comes for them to do so. So, Huyang almost definitely built the four we see him wielding in the Season 2 trailer, whereas all of Grievous’ lightsabers are taken from Jedi he defeats in battle. In other words, although Huyang isn’t a like-for-like replacement for General Grievous, he’s probably the closest thing Star Wars will ever provide in this respect.
- Release Date
-
August 22, 2023
- Network
-
Disney+
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
