There aremillions if not billions of planetssprinkled acrossStar Wars’ sprawling galaxy, with the one-time Jedi stronghold,Coruscant, playing a major role in multiple eras of this sci-fi franchise’s story in both its comic and live-action spaces. But in Star Wars’ distant future,Coruscant isn’t what fans remember, becoming a twisted reflection of what it once stood foras a beacon of light in a universe full of darkness.
Introduced onscreen in the 1997 re-release ofStar Wars: Return of the Jediand going on to play a prominent role in all three Star Wars prequel films, Coruscant is a planet-sized city that acted as the center of the galaxy during its heyday while also headquartering the then still-active Jedi Order.
Star Wars Legends continuity showed the eventual fate of Coruscant, with the planet brought close to total ruination bythe Yuuzhan Vong army. Some time after the Original Trilogy era, the deadly group invaded and altered the planet, with the effects seen over variousStar Warsnovels, starting with Troy Denning’sThe New Jedi Order:Star by Star, set in 27 ABY.The Yuuzhan Vong forcibly changed Coruscant’s orbit, bringing it closer to the Sun and reshaping its landscape to serve their needs - and that was just the beginning.In 2006’sStar Wars: Legacy #0, the franchise showcases the state of the planet in 137 ABY.
Star Wars: Legacy #0- 2006 (John Ostrander, Jan Duursema, Sean Cooke, and Dan Parsons)
Custom Image by Debanjana Chowdhury
Set over a century after the fall of Emperor Palpatine, pre-Legacylore saw the Vong take control of Coruscant and make it their throne-world, terraforming it into a more jungle-like biome, renaming it Yuuzhan’tar, adjusting its orbit for the worse, and finally crushing one of its moons to make a ‘rainbow bridge.’ Eventually losing their dominion over the planet to Emperor Roan Fel and his Galactic Empire,Coruscant was then obtained by Darth Krayt, who retrofitted the world into the home base of hisOne Sith operations, changing Coruscant in a multitude of ways that it never truly recovered from.
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As a set-up to theLegacyseries,Star Wars: Legacy #0introduced concept art, character bios, and lore summary, showing how the many years of new history covered in Legends novels and comics transformed Coruscant. The once proud world is now a patchwork of scars and alterations left behind by its various occupiers, with new biomes clashing and combining. Mentioning howCoruscant still bears the “scars of devastation” from its Vong takeover, this issue explains how"the Rings of Coruscant remain a popular tourist destination,“with theseLegacy-exclusive changes making it clear thatCoruscant is now more of a galactic curiothan a thriving world.
Coruscant Became a Hellish World Thanks to Decades of Occupation
Star Wars Legends Charted Over a Century of New Lore, With Coruscant Bearing the Brunt
After the death of Darth Krayt, the dissolution of the One Sith, and the ending ofStar Wars: Legacy, it’s safe to say that Coruscant will no longer be used for evil. Yetwhen it comes to Coruscant’s ultimate fate post-Legacy, its destiny is still up in the air, leaving the planet forever changed in unfortunate but still incredibly fascinating ways thatcurrent Star Wars canoncould potentially run with someday. While this dark lore change only happened in Legends canon,Coruscantis still an iconic planet inStar Wars, and it’s possible that future canon will chart a similar path.
