Star Wars Is Stealing a Brilliant Trick From an Underrated Sci-Fi Franchise
If Marrok ends up being someone else, who’s gonna tell Tron?
Before Marrok turned to the dark side of the Force, did he spend some time stuck in a video game?. In Ahsoka Episode 3, “Time To Fly,” the mysterious helmeted Inquisitor gets a few more lines of dialogue, which only puts fuel on the fire of fan theories that Marrok is actually some pre-existing Star Wars character in disguise. We’re still assuming he’ll turn out to just be some guy, but if Marrok really is a Starkiller, or Evil Ezra, or some other Star Wars deep cut, the entire thing will be a not-so-subtle reference to Tron: Legacy.
Mild spoilers ahead for Ahsoka (and Tron: Legacy).
Who is Marrok?
In “Time To Fly,” Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), unblinkingly orders Marrok around, saying, “Form up on my wing and wait for my signal.” Marrok responds with a husky “As you wish.” This seems to be the voice of longtime Star Wars voice actor Sam Witwer, who voiced Maul in both The Clone Wars and Rebels, as well as the character Starkiller in the non-canon games The Force Unleashed.
Marrok in Ahsoka.
Okay, so Marrok can speak, and his voice appears to be a big Star Wars Easter egg. On top of that, many fans are pointing out that the name “Marrok” comes from Sir Marrok, part of an Arthurian Legend in which a noble knight was transformed into a wolf by a witch named — get this — Morgan le Fay. The motif of a wolf has a long-running association with Ezra Bridger, which means there’s a hop-skip-and-jump here to the theory that Marrok is a Dark Side version of Ezra Bridger in disguise.
While some fans favor other theories — including the notion that Marrok is really the secret Darth Vader apprentice Starkiller — his very opaque helmet combined with the distorted voice means we have no idea who is “really” under the helmet. Whether or not the narrative of Ahsoka is intentionally trying to make us wonder about this, or if Marrok is a Knights of Ren-style nobody is unclear. But if Marrok is Ezra or some other former good-guy Star Wars hero, then Ahsoka will totally be ripping off Tron: Legacy.
The Tron-Star Wars Theory
You know who this is: It’s Evil Tron!
In the 2010 film Tron: Legacy, one of the big bads was a mysterious badass named Rinzler, who wore a helmet totally obscuring his face and spoke with the distorted voice of Bruce Boxleitner. In the last act of the movie, Rinzler turns out to be a corrupted version of the previously heroic program named “Tron,” who was, of course, played by Boxleitner in the 1982 original Tron. Had Tron: Legacy been a TV show, and not a one-off movie, you can easily see a parallel between this helmeted pseudo-baddie and Marrok on Ahsoka. If Marrok turns out to be Ezra Bridger, retrieved from the distant galaxy by Morgan and then turned to the dark side via dark magic, then we’re dealing with a late-in-the-game denouement straight from the Tron playbook.
And if Marrok is Ezra, this might play into the uneasy and strange affiliation that Baylan and Shin have with Morgan and her forces. If Baylan and Shin have reservations about destroying Ahsoka and Sabine, then are they unaware of Marrok’s (hypothetical) true identity as a fallen Jedi?
As of Episode 3, Ahsoka is in a place where it’s still possible that everything we’re seeing might not be as it seems. Perhaps Shin and Baylan aren’t exactly playing things straight with Morgan. Maybe Marrok isn’t just a generic Inquisitor. Perhaps, by the end of Ahsoka, some of these theories, and allusions to myth and legend will all end up mattering.
Or maybe not. As we learned with Praetorian guards in The Last Jedi and the Knights of Ren throughout the sequel trilogy, sometimes a cool-looking Star Wars helmet is just a helmet.
