The Inquisitors In Star Wars Explained
Star Wars Inquisitors are Jedi-hunters seeking to fulfill Order 66, even if most are former Jedi themselves.
There is a lot to keep track of in a galaxy far, far away. As the Star Wars universe continues to expand, so does the number of characters and stories in it. The Inquisitors, are a mysterious but important element of the larger Star Wars story that rose to prominence in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and we are here to help explain who they are and where they came from.
The Inquisitors were an elite group of fighters tasked with hunting down the remaining Jedi after Order 66. This twisted division of the Galactic Empire would either kill the Jedi, Padawans, and force-sensitive people they found or convert them to the Dark Side.
Many of the Inquisitors were once Jedi who turned from the Light to hunt down their own kind, making them one of Star Wars‘ darkest and most tragic organizations.
Like many other teams and regimes in the Star Wars universe, the Inquisitors had a ranking system. They traded in their old identities to become either a “brother” or “sister” within the Inquisitorius. Notable members include the Second and Ninth Sisters, who were tasked with hunting the Jedi Cal Cestes in the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
The Grand Inquisitor led the team, but all were under the rule of Darth Vader, who trained the Inquisitors in the ways of the Dark Side. Vader taught these turned Jedi to fight more aggressively, transforming the once peaceful people into vicious killers.
Per usual, the Emperor was ultimately pulling the Inquisitors’ strings. The Inquisitors were always a part of his sinister plan to take over the galaxy, and he kept these Jedi hunters on a leash.
Inquisitors are not Sith Lords. As Star Wars canon has taught us, the Sith operate in groups of two: master and apprentice. Those roles were occupied by the Emperor (Darth Sidious) and Darth Vader during the Imperial Era, so there was no room for Inquisitors to take on the mantle of Sith.
Vader trained them to fight and reject their Jedi ways, but the Inquisitors were kept from the deeper secrets of the Dark Side that made Sidious and Vader true Sith Lords.
The Inquisitors have made several appearances in Star Wars stories across various mediums that take place during the Imperial Era. They have appeared in several comic books, TV shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi and Star Wars Rebels, and more.
The Inquisitors hunted the remaining Jedi for the first several years of the Galactic Empire, much to the dislike of other Imperial divisions. The Inquisitors were viewed by many as mysterious, unnatural, and obsolete.
Eventually, that was true. The Jedi were deemed by the Empire to finally be extinct, and the Inquisitors disappeared. Many of them died over the course of their long Jedi hunt, but the fate of the others is unknown; many likely spread across the galaxy into self-imposed exile.
The Inquisitors are a powerful and frightening group within the Star Wars universe. These twisted Jedi are no joke, and Star Wars fans have likely not seen the last of them.
