‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ Kills Off Iconic OT Supporting Character

Warning – This Post Obviously Has Massive SPOILERS.

You’re going to be hearing a lot of people talk about the big deaths that occur in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Snoke gets cut in half; Luke fades away to become a Force ghost; and Vice Admiral Holdo goes out like a boss, jump her command ship into Snoke’s dread “Supremacy” war vessel.

Yes, all those deaths had real impact in The Last Jedi, but Rian Johnson’s Force Awakens sequel also claims an Original Trilogy icon as one of its victims: Admiral Ackbar!

Ackbar is at Leia’s side on her Resistance command ship when they are ambushed by Kylo Ren and a couple of his best fighter pilots. Leia reaches out to her son with the Force and convinces him to show mercy, but one of Ren’s wingmen fires away, blowing up the bridge, with Leia and Ackbar on it. With the ship breached, everyone on the bridge is sucked into the vacuum of space.

Leia survives the horrid ravages of space thanks to her Force powers, but Ackbar and the others aren’t so lucky. It just goes to show: you can only escape so many traps in life.

Ackbar was an important supporting figure in the Original Trilogy, a leading commander in The Rebel Alliance who could command an armada of spaceships as well as any fighter in the war. Like Boba Fett and so many other Star Wars side characters, Ackbar has his own cult-following and merchandise stream, and has even been featured in tie-in materials like books and canonized animated series. Longtime fans are surely going to miss him.

Star Wars The Last Jedi is now in theaters.