Revan was a character created by a role playing game made by BioWare in 2003 titled Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
TLDR:
Yes, Darth Revan character is canon but his actions and the Knights of the Old Republic is not.
Players would play as Revan and would be thrown into a galaxy set roughly 4,000 years before A New Hope.
The Legends Story Of Revan
KOTOR
The game shows Revan as a former Jedi hero turned Sith Lord taking on the name Darth Revan who would go on to form a Sith Empire to conquer the galaxy and would contend with the Republic’s armies for total control.
During a battle Revan would be betrayed by his apprentice Darth Malak who aimed to usurp his master.
Darth Revan would be captured by the Jedi and have his memories erased, he was given a new false identity as part of the Jedis plan to have the Sith Lord rejoin their ranks as a reformed Jedi to defeat Malak and the empire Revan himself had created.
He would be re-trained by his future wife Bastilla Shaan.
When playing the game you are not made aware of Revan’s Sith past until later in the game the player is led to believe Darth Revan is dead.
You may be wondering how the player did not realize when playing as ‘Revan’ that he is in fact Darth Revan?
Well here’s where the developers pulled a rug out from under the player.
Up until the reveal the player was playing as their own custom character that they had named and designed.
This character you had been playing as was the false identity given to Revan by the Jedi.
After fighting the Sith and recovering his memories the former Sith Lord would slay his former apprentice and destroy the Star Forge.
The Star Forge was an enormous automated shipyard that would create the most powerful army of all time.
It would draw energy from a nearby star which when combined with the force was capable of producing endless amounts of droids, ships and other war materials.
Revan would end the Jedi Civil War and with that end the Sith Emperor’s plan to accelerate his return, the Sith Emperor knew that it was only a matter of time before he would get another opportunity and moved his Sith Armada to deep space.
Revan was celebrated as a hero following the war and would marry Bastilla Shaan.
Eventually memories of what had happened to him and Malak after the Mandalorian Wars from before KOTOR would begin to surface in his head.
Visions of an evil greater than the Sith would enter Revan’s memory.
So Revan would leave his wife and unborn child in safe hands and would venture deeper into the galaxy in search of this unknown evil.
He would not be heard of again until the Sith Empire returned 300 years later.
KOTOR was considered canon up until 2014 when it became part of the non-canonical Star Wars Expanded Universe, more commonly known as Star Wars Legends.
After Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm anything that contained Revan be it games, comics or novels were all struck from the canon, thus making Revan not part of Star Wars canon.
The Clone Wars
Star Wars: The Clone Wars was an animated show that had its own battle with Disney’s take over of Lucasfilm the show was initially canceled but would remain canon and a deleted scene from one of the best arcs of the show almost brought Darth Revan to canon.
The Mortis Arc began in episode 15 of season 3 of The Clone Wars and consisted of Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice Ahsoka Tano and Obi-Wan Kenobi stumble upon a massive crystal-shaped structure floating in space whilst trying to randevu with a Republic Star Cruiser.
The structure would pull the trio’s ship into it. The structure would lay host to an unfamiliar world.
The world is strangely strong with the force and Anakin is contacted by someone only known as ‘Daughter’ who offers to take them to ‘Father’.
Anakin goes alone with Daughter with Ahsoka and Obi-Wan meeting the ‘Son’ who asks Obi-Wan if Anakin is truly the ‘Chosen One.’
The family are the force incarnated, the Daughter is the light, the son is the dark side and the Father is the balance, however, the Father is dying and is seeking a replacement strong enough in the force to control his children.
Have you guessed who he wishes to be his replacement? So how does Darth Revan play into this?
Well in a deleted scene from one of the episodes it shows that the Son speaks with the spirits of dead Dark Side users the primary spokesperson is none other than the ghost of Darth Revan.
Revan was one deleted scene away from becoming canon but has there been any other mentions of the Sith Lord since then? Yes!
The Rise Of Skywalker
The final Star Wars film of the Skywalker Saga gave fans of Revan what they had been waiting for.
The Visual Dictionary that accompanied the film made mention of the Revan Legion, a group of infantry Sith troopers who were found on the side of the Sith Eternal on Exego.
This book is canon and with Revan being mentioned directly also brings him into canon.
Just without his legacy as Sith Lord in the Old Republic Era.
Sounds complicated simply the character is canon not what the character has done.
Revan also made another appearance in the 2020 Vader comic series when he visits Exegol and sees carvings on a wall the carvings are undisputedly images of Darth Revan, Darth Malak and Darth Nihilus.
Final Thoughts
There we have it, I hope in reading this article you finally have the answer you were looking for.
Yes, Darth Revan is canon but the Knights of the Old Republic is not.
Maybe one day we will get a series or a film set in the Old Republic era where we can see Revan’s story be retold on the big screen for everyone to enjoy.
Brad Burnie is the founder of Starships.com. He loves all video game genres. In his spare time, he loves reading, watching movies, and gaming
