The “Star Wars” franchise takes place in one of the best fictional universes in film history. It’s an expansive and lived-in world that can support countless different stories of all kinds of tones — from the kid-friendly pirate adventure of “Skeleton Crew” to the tense political intrigue of “Andor.”
Ever since Obi-Wan Kenobi told Luke Skywalker that his father fought in the Clone Wars without elaborating in the very first “Star Wars” movie, the property has expanded its mythos and lore, introducing legends, mythic figures, and much more to its setting. The “Star Wars” films have similarly explored the fall of the Jedi while leaving it to various comic books, video games, novels, and TV series to provide answers to the many other unsolved mysteries of the galaxy far, far away.
Indeed, although there are many things that have been explained about the “Star Wars” universe — sometimes well, sometimes very poorly (cough, Han Solo’s name) — there are still plenty of mysteries and unanswered questions that’ve yet to be addressed. That includes such matters as what, exactly, is in the Unknown Regions, the name and origins of Yoda’s species, what the Loth Wolves really are, and much more.
Then there’s the franchise’s big villain: the Sith. They’ve provided some of the most iconic antagonists in cinema like Darth Vader, Darth Maul, and Darth Sidious, yet the Sith are still shrouded in mystery. While George Lucas’ prequel trilogy depicted the Sith’s rise to power, those films barely got into their actual philosophy, beliefs, or greater backstory.
Back in the day, though, there was a big mystery around what exactly a “Sith” even is. After all, the word was originally only used in a scene that was ultimately cut from the first “Star Wars” movie before being later included in the novelization, in which Vader was described as a “Dark Lord of the Sith” without any context as to its meaning. It wasn’t until the prequels that we learned more. Meanwhile, comics and novels in the Expanded Universe (which is now officially known as Star Wars Legends) provided their own origin story for the Sith — one which we may or may not see become canonical in James Mangold’s “Dawn of the Jedi” movie.
Though we now know plenty about the origin of the Sith as a splinter group of former Jedi, “Star Wars” canon doesn’t have quite so clear an answer to another oft-asked question: Why do so many Sith go by the moniker Darth, and what does that mean, exactly?
