Back in 1977, George Lucas’s space opera set a long time ago in a galaxy far far away took the world by storm, following countless production woes and concerns that his movie would be a box office flop.
The Star Wars franchise during the past few decades spanned nine movies spread across three trilogies, an animated spin-off movie, two (or three?) anthologies, and too many merchandise, TV shows, and (especially) video games to count. Also considering earlier this month marked the end to the first season of the franchise’s latest animated streaming hit Maul – Shadow Lord, today is a perfect time to take a look into some of the biggest Star Wars voice acting roles of Sam Witwer, one of the biggest names in the franchise.
You Are Force Unleashed, Starkiller
Even before Star Wars’s modern era under Disney’s ownership, one of Sam Witwer’s most iconic roles was not only lending his voice to this character, but also performing the mocap to and being the face of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice: Galen Marek, codenamed Starkiller. Though this character and the 2008 video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed are not considered canon anymore by Disney, long-time fans can easily recount the story of Darth Vader’s secret apprentice. As Starkiller, the player is strapped with his own lightsaber and an arsenal of force-powered abilities, laying waste to both Jedi and unsuspecting Imperial Stormtroopers. The character does eventually switch to the Light side of the Force down the road after being betrayed by his master, Starkiller’s sacrifice at the end of the game gives birth to the rise of the Rebel Alliance.
But the dark side strikes again through the game’s alternate ending, should the player choose to defeat Darth Vader once and for all. After ending Darth Vader permanently, Starkiller was presented yet another opportunity to join Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine (also voiced by Sam) as his replacement for Vader, Starkiller’s attempts to strike down Sidious failed. His own ship, the Rogue Shadow, was thrown into his body… only for the Emperor to reconstruct Vader’s former apprentice into the Sith Stalker armor and locking his fate into the dark side. The Force Unleashed had DLC (and an Ultimate Sith Edition) following this alternate ending, rewriting the desert adventures on Tatooine and the rebuilt Starkiller fighting Luke Skywalker himself during the Battle of Hoth, turning him to the dark side. Starkiller also had a non-canon appearance in the 2008 fighting game Soulcalibur 4 (featuring more non-canon appearances of Star Wars characters Yoda and Darth Vader).
Lightsabers Doubled
Following the canon ending of The Force Unleashed, Sam Witwer returns as Starkiller (or Galen Marek) in the 2010 sequel The Force Unleashed 2. This time, Vader (supposedly) clones his apprentice in order to pick up where they last left off. However, the cloning process in the facilities on Kamino were imperfect, and the Starkiller clone turns on Vader. The supposed clone would grapple with rediscovering himself and reuniting with Juno Eclipse the love interest of the original Starkiller. Just as the original Starkiller sported his signature lightsaber reverse grip, the Starkiller clone would do the same, but with two lightsabers.
Like with the first game, the sequel has two endings. With the canon ending, Starkiller fights and defeats Vader (as well as an army of defective Starkiller clones also voiced by Sam Witwer), saves Juno, and heads off to join up with the rest of the Rebellion, holding Darth Vader as a prisoner. Unbeknownst to the heroes, bounty hunter Boba Fett follows them, presumably tasked to recover the captured Sith Lord. Unfortunately, TFU 2 was not nearly as successful as its predecessor, and a TFU 3 would never see the light of day.
The alternate ending saw the Starkiller clone about to strike down Vader, but the clone and all his allies (including Juno Eclipse) would meet their demise by a surprise evil Starkiller clone. The game’s DLC would include a level where the evil clone rewrites Star Wars history once more by defeating the Rebel Allience in the Battle of Endor (featuring Chewbacca, Han Solo, and a Jedi Princess Leia). The DLC also included several character skins for Starkiller, particularly one called the “Maulkiller“, a Starkiller Clone featuring Darth Maul’s horns/Sith tattoos.
Before moving on to the next iconic Star Wars role for Sam Witwer, I’d like to share a personal memory about Sam. Going back to 2019’s Star Wars Celebration Chicago, I did see Sam Witwer at a panel that featured him with Boba Fett actor Daniel Logan, Iden Versio actress Janina Gavankar from EA’s Battlefront 2, and two other hosts/guests from LucasArts. During this show, the five were playing several retro and *fairly* modern Star Wars video games, including The Force Unleashed. Sam Witwer performed Starkiller’s iconic idle animation, and helped with sharing a story where he and the makers/fellow cast members of the video game came up with lyrics for The Force Unleashed’s theme song.
A Son of Mortis
In 2011 (and now in line with the modern Disney-era Star Wars Canon), Sam Witwer played yet a new Star Wars character, in the 2008 Cartoon Network series The Clone Wars. Presenting: the Son (aka, the Brother), a god-like being living in the mysterious Force world known as Mortis, with the Father and the Daughter. The Son is essentially the Dark Side personified. After Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Ahsoka Tano got pulled into Mortis and Anakin’s status as The Chosen Once is further cemented, The Son attempted to escape Mortis. He seduced Anakin to the dark side by showing visions of Skywalker’s future. Eventually, Anakin’s dark side visions were erased (for now), The Son’s escape was thwarted, in large part, by the sacrifices of not only himself, but also for The Father and The Daughter.
The Son would not be the only major character that Sam Witwer would voice in The Clone Wars, however…
The Phantom Apprentice
The next season after the Mortis ark, a fallen Sith Lord from the beginning of the Prequel Trilogy would make his anticipated return. Putting his own spin on Peter Serafinowicz’s Darth Maul voice, Sam Witwer voiced the return of Darth Sidious’s first Sith apprentice from 1999’s The Phantom Menace. Many years after Darth Maul’s defeat at the lightsaber blade of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Maul had actually survived, building himself mechanical spider-like legs, but also losing his mind in the process. Maul’s own brother Savage Opress would one day set out to find his long lost brother. After Maul’s mind was restored and given new human-like mechanical legs, Maul is joined by his brother and set out to crave his revenge against the Jedi Master.
Maul has been a continuous recurring character in the franchise, and thus, Sam Witwer voiced numerous versions of Maul, such as in Star Wars Rebels (an older Maul would eventually meet his end facing Obi-Wan), The Lego Star Wars Holiday Special, Lego Star Wars: Terrifying Tales, and a live-action cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Going back to The Clone Wars, Maul had further appearances involving him and Savage building a criminal Empire, losing his brother to Darth Sidious, and a major role in the show’s 7th season, via Disney Plus.
Starting last month, Sam Witwer continued Darth Maul’s story in the character’s own animated series Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord. Season 1 took a deeper dive into how Maul has evolved since his movie appearance in Star Wars Episode 1 and how far he’s come since The Clone Wars series (and set before Rebels). In fact, fans have been eager and delighted to point out a number of instances that the showrunners snuck visual easter eggs to The Force Unleashed. These were demonstrated through Maul posing with his lightsaber just like Starkiller, destroying an early AT-AT (ish) Imperial vehicle in a similar way to one of Starkiller’s many QTE (Quick Time Event) takedowns in the game, and even posing just like the Starkiller clone by reverse-gripping two lightsabers.
How fitting this is to reference a character and video game that Sam Witwer has voiced in as well, in addition to Maul. The circle is now complete… First, there was Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace (played in person by Ray Park). Then, Sam Witwer played Starkiller and his clone(s) in The Force Unleashed video games (with Maul having a holographic cameo in a boss fight). Furthermore, a Starkiller clone that featured Darth Maul’s markings, then ultimately having Maul pose like the Starkillers, complete with reverse lightsaber grips.
And to top things off even more, Maul’s Spybot was voiced by Sam’s TFU co-star David W. Collins. When Spybot met his demise in one of the last episodes of Season 1, the droid cries out “Master…” in a similar fashion to Starkiller’s droid companion Proxy (also voiced by Collins). All this really does rhyme, just like poetry…
What do you think of some of Sam Witwer’s famous Star Wars voice acting roles? Have a favorite role in mind? Let us know on Smash Jump’s social media!
