The first episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi opened with one of the most tragic moments of the entire Star Wars canon—the moment Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, a.k.a. Darth Sidious, instructed the clones to execute Order 66.
It was an order that they couldn’t refuse, even though they had been fighting side by side with Jedi Knights during the Clone Wars up until that moment, since they all had an inhibitor chip planted in their brains since their “birth” on Kamino. The chip compelled all clones to follow the Order as soon as the Jedi were denounced for having committed treason against the Republic.
While we were used to seeing the effects of Order 66 in The Revenge of the Sith, with the sweeping montage of clone troopers turning against their Jedi allies and killing them all across the galaxy, Obi-Wan Kenobi made us relive the moment from a different perspective.
Those opening minutes of Obi-Wan Kenobi brought us right inside the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, where we see the chaos that ensues after the Order is given, as Jedi Knights and padawans alike try to save themselves. That is—until a newly-appointed Darth Vader arrives to make sure they don’t.
Or do they?
We already knew that some Jedi had survived. When we first see him in Episode IV, Luke Skywalker is firmly convinced that the Jedi are a thing of the pre-Empire past, mythical heroes who no longer exist—only they do, since both Obi-Wan and Yoda are very much alive and more or less willing to train him in the ways of the Jedi Order.
And other pieces of the Star Wars canon further confirmed that the Empire too was well aware that Order 66 didn’t manage to exterminate all of the Jedi. Some escaped their execution only to die soon after, of course, but a handful managed to stay hidden and continue their fight against the Empire.
A thing that the people over at the soon-to-be Death Star tried to change in every way possible, dispatching Inquisitors—often surviving Jedi themselves who had turned to the Dark Side—left and right across the galaxy to hunt them down.
The Survivors
So how many Jedi did survive Order 66, exactly? Here is a list of all the surviving Jedi who have appeared throughout the various pieces of Star Wars canon—while some of them didn’t live much longer after Order 66 itself, having been captured or slain by Inquisitors, many of them continued their fight underground and served as pivotal figures during the first stages of the Rebellion. It’s also very likely that this list, by now consisting of almost twenty people, will expand as more surviving Jedi are revealed in future stories:
- Obi-Wan Kenobi (we see him appear in Obi-Wan Kenobi and A New Hope)
- Yoda (he appears again in The Empire Strikes Back and The Return of the Jedi)
- Ahsoka Tano (Anakin Skywalker’s former padawan is one of the main characters in Star Wars Rebels)
- Grogu (he isn’t a trained Jedi, but we know that the Empire also hunts Force-sensitive children like him and he’s alive and well in The Mandalorian)
- The Jedi from the Fallen Order videogame: Cal Kestis, Cere Junda, and Taron Malicos
- The Inquisitorious, all of whom were former Jedi turned to the Dark Side: The Grand Inquisitor (Star Wars Rebels), Fifth Brother and Seventh Sister (Star Wars Rebels and Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith), Trilla Suduri/Second Sister and Ninth Sister (Jedi: Fallen Order), Tenth Brother, Sixth Brother (Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith) and Reva/Third Sister (Obi-Wan Kenobi)
- Other Jedi from Star Wars Rebels: Kanan Jarrus and Luminara Unduli
- Other Jedi from the Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith comics: Jocasta Nu, Ferren Barr, Kirak Infil’a, Eeth Koth, Quinlan Los, Oppo Rancisis, Coleman Kcaj, Ka-Moon Kholi, and Selrahc Elous
- The Jedi from the Star Wars: Uprising game: Zubain Anokonori, Nuhj, Mususiel, and Khandra
- Naq Med, from The Force Collector; Nari, from Obi-Wan Kenobi; Gungi from Star Wars: The Bad Batch and Uvell, from Star Wars Insider 154
(source: Dork Side of the Force; image: Lucasfilm)
