Yesterday, it was announced that Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars series is coming to Disney+! The series ran for three seasons from 2003-2005 and, among other things, introduced several key characters into the Star Wars universe, like General Grievous and Asajj Ventress – and a bounty hunter named Durge.
Today, it was revealed that DURGE IS CANON AGAIN!
StarWars.com released a number of solicits for upcoming comics, most of them having to do with the epic crossover War of the Bounty Hunters event. One of those solicits was for Doctor Aphra #11, written by Alyssa Wong, which will release on June 30. And on the cover of that issue looms a familiar face: Durge, seen for the first time in any canon media!
According to the solicit, here’s what we can expect:
DOCTOR APHRA and SANA STARROS discover an eerie abandoned ship while on a new mission from DOMINA TAGGE.
But on board they will come face-to-face with a nightmarish horror not seen in the galaxy for untold eons.
And then there’s….THE FEARSOME BOUNTY HUNTER DURGE!
And here’s a look at that cover, showing Durge towering over Aphra and Starros:
Durge was a Gen’Dai, a species that hasn’t appeared in canon yet either. The Gen’Dai were incredibly hard to kill, as they didn’t possess a skeleton or many vital organs and therefore could regenerate and heal rather quickly. They could live for a long time, and that was true of Durge, who was alive for nearly 2,000 years before he was finally killed by Anakin Skywalker near the end of the Clone Wars. He was a bounty hunter who fought with the Sith in ancient wars, and much later was aligned with Count Dooku and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Durge was recruited to fight clones of Jango Fett, as Durge held a special hatred for Mandalorians. He fought in many battles during the Clone Wars and proved to be a deadly foe for the Republic and the Jedi.
His most notable encounter came on Muunilist, where he fought against Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi. Durge led a squad of IG droids on speeder bikes to turn the tide of the battle in favor of the Separatists, while Kenobi and a squad of clones subsequently took to their own bikes to confront the enemy. Kenobi and Durge fought in close combat, and the Jedi thought he killed the bounty hunter… until later Durge reappeared, this time without his armor. This made him an even more formidable foe, but Kenobi again defeated him, this time with the Force.
Much of Durge’s backstory is likely to change. For one thing, it sounds like Dave Filoni and the team on The Clone Wars briefly considered bringing Durge into that series as well, but making him human. So we’ll have to see whether the re-canonization of Durge also re-canonizes the Gen’Dai or not. Furthermore, it obviously means that he didn’t die near the end of the Clone Wars, since he’s still present after The Empire Strikes Back. And third, the description for this issue describes “a nightmarish horror not seen in the galaxy for untold eons.” Is that Durge? If so, it would fit, since in legends he lived for nearly two millennia, but that could mean he wasn’t involved in the Clone Wars.
Regardless, this is super cool. Durge was very popular when the first Clone Wars series released, and it’s honestly a bit surprising that it’s taken this long for him to be brought to a new canon story. But I’m really excited that it’s happening, and I wonder if this is part of the reason for the Clone Wars coming to Disney+ in April. And with a popular character like Durge, I wonder if we could see him show up in another project down the road, like The Bad Batch or The Mandalorian or The Book of Boba Fett – all of which either deal with bounty hunters or Mandalorians, which would tie-in very naturally and easily to Durge’s character.
Even if not, though, we’ll get to see him participate in the War of the Bounty Hunters, and this makes me even more excited for that story!
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