This Star Wars: Ahsoka article contains spoilers.
While Ahsoka features the return of many familiar Star Wars characters, the first two episodes have also introduced us to some intriguing newcomers, such as the mysterious former Imperial Inquisitor Marrok. All we know about Marrok so far is that he works alongside former Jedi Baylan Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati as a mercenary for Lady Morgan Elsbeth and is aiding in their search for Grand Admiral Thrawn. But because of his mask, Marrok’s identity is a mystery that Star Wars fans are eager to solve.
That said, eagle-eyed fans think they’ve found the answer to who’s behind the mask. After spotting Sam Witwer’s name under “Additional Voices” in the credits for Ahsoka, the prevailing theory is that Marrok is actually the new canon version of Galen Marek aka Starkiller from the Force Unleashed video game series. While Witwer has voiced other characters, most notably Darth Maul in The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series, Starkiller was his first role in the Star Wars universe.
In The Force Unleashed, we first meet Galen Marek as a little boy on Kashyyyk in the aftermath of the Clone Wars. After Darth Vader kills his parents, the Dark Lord of the Sith takes Galen on as a secret apprentice and renames him Starkiller, sending him out on missions to hunt down the fugitive Jedi Knights who survived Order 66. While Galen eventually abandons the dark side and even helps found the fledgling Rebel Alliance against the Empire, he dies at the end of the game while rescuing his new Rebel allies. We later learn in the sequel Vader created clones of his former apprentice so that their dark mission to exterminate every last Jedi could continue.
Even though the Force Unleashed games are no longer canon, and therefore Galen doesn’t currently exist in the same continuity as Ahsoka and the other Mandoverse shows, that certainly doesn’t mean he couldn’t be reintroduced in the new timeline with some tweaks. Witwer himself said in a 2017 interview that Ahsoka showrunner Dave Filoni had considered bringing Starkiller back as an Inquisitor for the Rebels animated, but that it just didn’t fit the story Filoni was telling at the time. In Ahsoka, however, an Inquisitor Starkiller makes a bit of sense.
Yes, Ahsoka is about the search for Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn, but it’s also thematically about the relationship between master and apprentice. Since Starkiller and Ahsoka are both apprentices of Anakin Skywalker (albeit in different continuities and contexts), it would be fitting to see their paths intersect in the series. The series is also very interested in exploring unconventional Force-sensitive characters who aren’t exactly Jedi — Ahsoka, Baylan, Sabine, Ezra, and Morgan all fit the bill — and Galen Marek would certainly work as yet another perspective into a Force wielder who exists beyond the Jedi and the Sith.
But while Witwer’s Galen Marek is the most prevailing theory regarding Marrok’s identity, there are others who believe that the villain is actually Ezra turned to the dark side. A lot of support for this theory comes from the Arthurian legend surrounding the name Marrok. According to legend, Marrok was a knight who was controlled by a witch with connections to Morgan le Fay, and in some texts is even referred to as a Werewolf Knight. Given Morgan Elsbeth’s connections to the witchy Nightsisters of Dathomir, Ezra’s connection to the Loth-wolves, and Ezra’s brief dalliances with the dark side in Rebels this doesn’t seem entirely outside of the realm of possibility.
However, given that Thrawn and Ezra disappeared together at the end of Rebels, and we know that Thrawn is currently in another galaxy, it seems unlikely that Ezra is terrorizing our heroes and not trapped with Thrawn in Peridia beyond known space. Could they have been separated at some point in the decade they’ve been missing? Possibly! But things don’t quite line up as cleanly for this theory.
Plus, it has to be said that the names “Marek” and “Marrok” are too alike to simply be a coincidence, right?
Star Wars: Ahsoka is streaming now on Disney+.