Star Wars has had more than its fair share of weird guys with even weirder reputations. The sequel trilogy had Klaud, the slug-like creature who fans turned into a meme soon after his debut in The Rise of Skywalker. The original trilogy has beloved jizz-wailer Max Rebo. In between, the prequel trilogy gave us dozens of weird guys, from Jar Jar Binks to Dex Jettster to Boss Nass.
But the ultimate complicated weirdo is Watto, the Toydarian junk dealer, slave owner, and vague antisemitic stereotype who owned Anakin Skywalker and his mother Shmi on Tatooine. Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan freed Anakin from bondage in The Phantom Menace, but Shmi remained.
Shmi was later abducted and tortured by Tusken Raiders, and while Anakin got his revenge, we never heard another word about Watto. A new comic, however, has revealed that Anakin returned to Tatooine once again to deal with his old master after becoming Darth Vader.
Mark Paniccia, Senior Editor at Marvel Comics, offered fans a sneak peek of Star Wars: Legacy of Vader #2, which follows Kylo Ren as he hunts down Order 66 survivors. In a flashback, we see Anakin Skywalker — after his transformation into Darth Vader — wielding a lightsaber against Watto. We see Watto’s terrified face reflected in Vader’s mask, frozen in a terrified expression, implying he didn’t survive the encounter.
This is actually the first canonical proof ofWatto’s demise. Darth Maul beheaded Watto in the 2005 comic anthology Star Wars Visionaries, but that was never canonical. He became one of Star Wars’ biggest loose ends, a sneaky survivor responsible for Anakin and Shmi’s slavery who got off scot-free.
We don’t know what else Kylo Ren will find on Tatooine in his comic book adventure, although the synopsis suggests a run-in with a Hutt and a rancor, both Tatooine mainstays. The Kylo-focused series Legacy of Vader comes just before the greater Star Wars comic book landscape resets with a launch into the post-Return of the Jedi era, so there will be a lot of ground to cover.
For now, it looks like Kylo will walk down memory lane, exploring what Anakin left behind and hunting down the Jedi Order 66 missed. It’s a prime opportunity to address plot holes, so Watto may only be the beginning of the bloodshed.
