Captain Rex
Captain Rex is a fictional character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. He was introduced as a main character in the animated The Clone Wars 2008 film and the related television series of the same name. Rex is a clone trooper of the Grand Army of the Republic, cloned from the Mandalorian bounty hunter Jango Fett, and serves the Galactic Republic under the command of Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Commander Ahsoka Tano. Since his introduction in The Clone Wars, he has also appeared in the 2014 Star Wars Rebels television series, the 2021 Star Wars: The Bad Batch television series, the 2022 Tales of the Jedi television series and various spin-off media. Like all clone troopers in The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Bad Batch and Tales of the Jedi, Rex is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker. In Ahsoka, Rex made his live-action debut in the episode "Part Five: Shadow Warrior", voiced by Temuera Morrison in sequences set during the Clone Wars.
He is physically distinguished from other clone troopers by his close shaved blond hair, and he is identified by blue markings on his armor and by stylized hawk eyes painted on his helmet. Rex was also distinguished by his use of twin DC-17 blaster pistols in combat. He is described as a reliable and exemplary soldier, considered by Anakin to be his "first-in-command". Rex is characterized as believing it is his duty to not only carry out orders but also to protect the men under his command; however, his belief in the Republic wavers and changes over the course of the series.
Initial development for The Clone Wars film chose Alpha-17, featured in Star Wars: Republic, to be the primary clone trooper character. However, Lucas felt this created too much alliteration with the existing principal cast, and a new character was created instead. Rex was developed as the central personality to which the troopers around him aspired and featured in story arcs exploring his character development. Rex became a fan favorite, consistently placing in fan polls and Star Wars character ranking lists.
Creation and development
Initial development for The Clone Wars film chose Alpha-17, featured in the Star Wars: Republic comic, to be the principal clone trooper character. However, because Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka Tano, and R2-D2 were also principal characters, Star Wars creator George Lucas felt Alpha's name created too much alliteration between the main cast, and a new character, Captain Rex, was created instead. The name "Rex" was chosen by Lucas. Previously, the name Captain Rex was used for the error-prone rookie droid pilot RX-24 of Star Tours, who replaced an earlier concept of an unpredictable and risk-taking Clone Wars veteran.Voice actor Dee Bradley Baker voices every the clone trooper characters in The Clone Wars, including Rex. To differentiate the characters, Baker considered the personality traits of every clone, choosing one or two adjectives for each, and recorded each character separately. To aid with the vocal performance, Baker and supervising director Dave Filoni developed a "clone triangle" that arranged the characters by personality. Rex, characterized as the central personality type to which the other clones aspired, was placed in the center, and the other clones, who represented an excess of certain traits relative to Rex, were placed around the edges of the triangle.
Filoni wished most for the series to address the fates of Rex and Ahsoka because they do not appear in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which was released before The Clone Wars but is set after the series' timeline. In April 2011, he hinted that the two characters' stories were possibly connected and remarked: "A lot of people say they want to know more about , and along with that goes Rex." He also voiced the production team's conscious effort to write story arcs for Rex: "I think one of the other things is we have such a great development of Rex that we really want to keep telling Rex's story and things centered around Rex."
Characterization and appearance
The official Star Wars Databank describes Rex as a "no-nonsense, by the book" and "exemplary clone trooper, brave under fire and dedicated to the men serving under him" who must adjust to his "maverick","headstrong" and "brazen" Jedi commanding officers. His training is described as having instilled a belief that a soldier's highest calling is duty, though his belief wavers over the course of the Clone Wars and he comes to question the purpose of the conflict. The entry characterized Rex as coming to admire and even imitate Anakin Skywalker's improvisation and willingness to bend rules. In "Darkness on Umbara", Anakin describes Rex as his "first-in-command" and second-to-none in loyalty or capability.Rex is distinguished by close-shaved blond hair and stylized hawk eyes adorning his helmets; like all members of the 501st, his armor bears blue markings. Later in the series, Rex's armor bears tally marks, representing kills, and Filoni felt it communicated that Rex "is becoming something of a little legend" because he is "a long term survivor of the Clone Wars". He also bears a scar on his chin in homage to actor Harrison Ford, who played Han Solo in the original trilogy.
In season four of the show, Rex begins wearing a modified helmet composed of elements from both the older Episode II-style and the newer Episode III-style designs. Rex's new helmet uses the Episode III-style design as a base and has the Episode II-style visor in place of the Episode III-style visor, requiring some elements to be modified to fit. Filoni developed an in-universe backstory for the design and felt that Rex "trying to wear the same armor" by welding together a hybrid version was a good character trait that added to his uniqueness. Filoni also characterized this specialized helmet and "hodgepodge of old gear and new gear" as indicative of Rex's distrust in the quality of the new armor and Rex's belief that with "classic stuff, the craftsmanship is a little better". Rex continues to wear his helmet and parts of his clone trooper armor in his Rebels appearances.
Appearances
''Star Wars: The Clone Wars''
Introduced in The Clone Wars animated film and featured throughout the television series of the same name, Captain Rex, designation number CT-7567, is the commanding officer of Torrent Company within the 501st Legion under the command of Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Padawan Commander Ahsoka Tano. He fights as a soldier of the Grand Army of the Republic in numerous campaigns of the Clone Wars against the Separatist battle droid army. As a clone trooper, he was cloned on Kamino from bounty hunter Jango Fett and ages at an accelerated rate, aging twenty years in ten years. As Anakin's Clone Captain, he goes on many missions with Anakin and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano, sharing Anakin's quick-thinking skills and recklessness at times.In a season four story arc, the 501st Legion is temporarily led by Jedi General Pong Krell. In the face of Krell's callousness toward clone lives and refusal to treat the troopers as individuals instead of numbered units, Rex is caught between his duty to follow Krell's orders and his responsibility to protect his men. Despite growing discontent in the ranks and calls for dissent from Fives, Rex does not openly defy Krell. However, Rex supports a mission led by Fives that is expressly forbidden by Krell but saves numerous clone trooper lives. After orders causes the 501st Legion and the 212th Attack Battalion to unknowingly attack one another, Rex leads the troopers to arrest Krell, who reveals he has turned to the dark side, admits he has been deliberately sabotaging the clones, and is later executed by clone trooper Dogma. Rex is also involved in a season six story arc centering on a conspiracy regarding the clone troopers. Fives discovers that inhibitor chips are secretly implanted into the clone troopers' brains and can be used to turn them against the Jedi. He reveals this to Rex before he dies.
Rex is a principal character in the Bad Batch story arc, an unfinished story arc released as completed animatics; the arc was released in completed form as part of the seventh season of The Clone Wars, released on Disney+ in 2020. Shortly after Fives' death, Rex discovers a transmission from Echo, previously thought to have been killed in action, and leads a successful mission to rescue him, with help from Anakin and Clone Force 99, a squad of clone troopers with genetic mutations. Rex also appears in the final story arc of the series, the Siege of Mandalore, set during Revenge of the Sith. After being promoted to commander, he leads half of the 501st Legion reassigned to Ahsoka, who previously relinquished command upon leaving the Jedi Order, into an assault of Mandalore, with the intent of capturing the former Sith Lord Darth Maul. Though the assault is successful and Maul's forces are defeated, with Maul himself captured, Palpatine, who has revealed himself as Darth Sidious, issues Order 66, causing Ahsoka's clone troopers to turn on her, including Rex; however, Rex is able to resist the order long enough to warn Ahsoka. As a result, Ahsoka escapes and manages to remove Rex's chip, restoring his free will. For his treachery against the Republic, ARC Trooper Jesse threatens to demote Commander Rex to captain and orders his execution. Rex and Ahsoka manage to escape the cruiser they are on before it crashes into the planet below. After the impact, Rex and Ahsoka bury Jesse and the dead clones in a mass grave, marking it with the helmets of the fallen clones. The pair then fake their deaths and go their separate ways.