Star Wars: Who Is Hux in The Mandalorian?

The Mandalorian Season 3, Episode 7, "Chapter 23: The Spies," revealed a threat to the galaxy and Mandalore that hadn't seen the light before. [SPOILERS for the episode follow.] Among the members of this Shadow Council was one with a familiar name, Commandant Hux, who might be mistaken for a villain from the Star Wars sequel trilogy, General Hux. They are not the same character, though they are related, as are the actors who play them. Domnhall Gleeson played General Armitage Hux in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Domnhall Gleeson's brother, Brian Gleeson, debuts as Commandant Brendol Hux, Armitage's father, in The Mandalorian.

The Shadow Council scene reveals that Commandant Hux is working on "Project Necromancer," which involves cloning. Could it be the project that would lead to Emperor Palpatine's return?

Who is Brendol Hux?

While The Mandalorian is Brendol Hux's first appearance in live-action, it is not his first appearance in Star Wars canon. Brendol Hux appeared in Chuck Wendig's Star Wars: Aftermath trilogy of novels chronicling events in the Star Wars galaxy shortly after the Battle of Endor in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (though he first appeared in a Star Wars junior novel called Servants of the Empire: The Secret Academy.)

Brendol Hux was once a junior officer in the Republic's army. However, he seemed to have no qualms about joining the Imperial ranks. Her an Imperial Academy on Arkanis that trained new officers for the Imperial Army while finding Force-sensitive students to give to the Inquisitorious.

Sometime before the Empire's fall, Brendol sired a son, Armitage, out of wedlock with an individual described as a "kitchen woman." Brendol was unkind to his son, abusing the child verbally and physically and freely expressing his disappointment with him.

After the Empire's fall, Commandant Hux was rescued by the forces of Fleet Admiral Gallius Rax, who would go on to become the secret power behind the Imperial Remnant for a time. Rax appointed Hux to the Shadow Council, and Hux put his experience at the Imperial Academy to use training child soldiers, orphans that Rax had acquired from the Hutt that kidnapped them, as Rax's guards.

When Rax's efforts to instigate the Emperor's destructive contingency plan were foiled by Grand Admiral Rae Sloane, the Imperial Remnant fled into the Unknown Regions. Sloane forced Brendol into an alliance and vowed to protect Armitage from him. She ordered Brendol to teach his son everything he knew, which he did. There, the First Order came to be, and Brendol became a general in its ranks and ran its Stormtrooper training program.

During a mission to the planet Parnassos, Hux met the warrior Phasma, who he took back to the First Order and appointed his protege, putting her in charge of training older Stormtroopers and making her his bodyguard. However, Phasma never felt any true allegiance to Hux or the First Order. She secretly allied herself with Armitage and poisoned Brendol, leading to his death.

The Mandalorian debuts new episodes on Wednesdays on Disney+.