Captain Rex

Introduced in The Clone Wars animated film and featured throughout the television series of the same name, Captain Rex, designation number CT-7567,[lower-alpha 1] is the commanding officer of Torrent Company within the 501st Legion under the command of Jedi General Anakin Skywalker and Jedi Padawan Commander Ahsoka Tano. He fights as a soldier of the Grand Army of the Republic in numerous campaigns of the Clone Wars against the Separatist battle droid army.[2] As a clone trooper, he was cloned on Kamino from bounty hunter Jango Fett and ages at an accelerated rate, aging twenty years in ten years.[22][23] As Anakin's Clone Captain, he goes on many missions with Anakin and his Padawan Ahsoka Tano, sharing Anakin's quick-thinking skills and recklessness at times.

In a season four story arc, the 501st Legion is temporarily led by Jedi General Pong Krell. In the face of Krell's callousness toward clone lives and refusal to treat the troopers as individuals instead of numbered units, Rex is caught between his duty to follow Krell's orders and his responsibility to protect his men.[16] Despite growing discontent in the ranks and calls for dissent from Fives, Rex does not openly defy Krell.[16][24][25] However, Rex supports a mission led by Fives that is expressly forbidden by Krell but saves numerous clone trooper lives.[25] After orders causes the 501st Legion and the 212th Attack Battalion to unknowingly attack one another, Rex leads the troopers to arrest Krell, who reveals he has turned to the dark side, admits he has been deliberately sabotaging the clones, and is later executed by clone trooper Dogma.[26] Rex is also involved in a season six story arc centering on a conspiracy regarding the clone troopers. Fives discovers that inhibitor chips are secretly implanted into the clone troopers' brains and can be used to turn them against the Jedi. He reveals this to Rex before he dies.[27]

Rex is a principal character in the Bad Batch[28] story arc, an unfinished story arc released as completed animatics; the arc was released in completed form as part of the seventh season of The Clone Wars, released on Disney+ in 2020. Shortly after Fives' death, Rex discovers a transmission from Echo, previously thought to have been killed in action, and leads a successful mission to rescue him, with help from Anakin and Clone Force 99 (aka "The Bad Batch"), a squad of clone troopers with genetic mutations. Rex also appears in the final story arc of the series, the Siege of Mandalore, set during Revenge of the Sith. After being promoted to commander, he leads half of the 501st Legion reassigned to Ahsoka, who previously relinquished command upon leaving the Jedi Order, into an assault of Mandalore, with the intent of capturing the former Sith Lord Darth Maul. Though the assault is successful and Maul's forces are defeated, with Maul himself captured, Palpatine, who has revealed himself as Darth Sidious, issues Order 66, causing Ahsoka's clone troopers to turn on her, including Rex; however, Rex is able to resist the order long enough to warn Ahsoka. As a result, Ahsoka escapes and manages to remove Rex's chip, restoring his free will. For his treachery against the Republic, ARC Trooper Jesse threatens to demote commander Rex to captain and orders his execution. Rex and Ahsoka manage to escape the cruiser they are on before it crashes into the planet below. After the impact, Rex and Ahsoka bury Jesse and the dead clones in a mass grave, marking it with the helmets of the fallen clones. The pair then fake their deaths and go their separate ways.[29][30][31]

An aging Rex as he appears in the second season of Star Wars Rebels.

Rex was added to the main cast of Star Wars Rebels television series, set fifteen years after The Clone Wars, in the second season. Now seemingly a much older man due to accelerated aging, Rex lives with fellow clone troopers Commander Wolffe and Captain Gregor. In the episode "The Lost Commanders", the three are sought by the Ghost crew upon instructions from Ahsoka, and they ask the troopers for help in establishing a new rebel base. Though the three have had their inhibitor chips removed, allowing them to ignore Order 66, former Padawan Kanan Jarrus initially distrusts them. Wolffe, fearing the consequences for aiding rebels and Jedi, contacts the Galactic Empire to protect the clones.[32] However, Rex convinces Wolffe the rebels can be trusted and repels the Empire, in turn earning Kanan's trust. Rex leaves Wolffe and Gregor to join the Rebel Alliance and to fight alongside the Ghost crew and Ahsoka against the Empire.[33] In the epilogue of the series finale "Family Reunion - and Farewell", it is revealed that he was promoted to commander again and fought with Hera at the Battle of Endor.

Rex appears in The Bad Batch animated series, which continues the story of the eponymous clone trooper team in the immediate aftermath of The Clone Wars. He is first mentioned in the episode "Cut and Run" by clone deserter Cut Lawquane, whom Rex visited shortly after the events of Order 66. Rex told Cut about the inhibitor chips that caused regular clones to turn on the Jedi, and Cut relays this information to the Bad Batch when they visit him the following day. In the episode "Decomissioned", sisters Trace and Rafa Martez have a run-in with the Bad Batch on Corellia while attempting to retrieve data from a tactical droid for Rex. After their mission, the sisters inform Rex that the Bad Batch have rebelled against the Empire and tell him how to find them. In the following episode, "Battle Scars", Rex tracks down and reunites with the Bad Batch, but is alarmed to learn they have not removed their chips like he did. He takes them to a crashed cruiser on Bracca to use its medical bay, but during their mission, one of the Bad Batch members, Wrecker's, chip activates and he attacks them. Rex helps the others subdue Wrecker, after which the Bad Batch have their chips removed and they part ways with Rex. He later returns in the episode "War-Mantle" as a hologram, where he asks the Bad Batch to investigate a distress signal sent by Captain Gregor from Daro.

Rex appears in Tales of the Jedi animated series. He helps Anakin train Ahsoka with his troopers in the episode Practice makes Perfect and has a non speaking cameo in Resolve having flown Ahsoka to Naboo to attend Padme Amidala's funeral.

Rex appears in the Ahsoka episode "Part Five: Shadow Warrior" in sequences set during the Clone Wars.

Since his introduction in The Clone Wars, Rex has also appeared in comics, novels, and video games of the Star Wars Expanded Universe, also known as Star Wars Legends.

In March 2016, Filoni supported the former fan theory of Rex being the older member of Han Solo's raiding party, previously known in Legends continuity as Nik Sant, on Endor in Return of the Jedi.[34] In August 2017, writer Steven Melching shared concept art for the fourth season of Star Wars Rebels, and it was reported as a confirmation of this theory.[35] Melching later clarified that at that time he was not aware if Rex and Sant are the same character, stating that due to the progression of the series, Rex's costume would naturally come to resemble those worn by Rebel Alliance commandos in Return of the Jedi.[36] Rebels ultimately did not state whether Rex and Nik Sant are the same character, which Filoni later said was a purposeful decision to allow either possibility, although the animated web series Star Wars Forces of Destiny would ultimately display Rex in place of Sant in that series' animation style.[37]