Captain Rex’s Complete Story: From Kamino Cadet to Rebels Veteran
How one clone trooper survived Order 66 and quietly stitched Star Wars animation together
When Star Wars: The Clone Wars hit theaters on August 15, 2008, most fans expected Jedi to carry the story. Instead, one blue‑striped clone captain walked out of that movie with a surprising amount of attention.
CT‑7567, better known as Captain Rex, started life as just another Kamino‑bred soldier. Seventeen years of storytelling later, he has become the connective tissue between The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, Rebels, and even the live‑action Ahsoka series. He is also one of the only characters we can track from the first battle of Geonosis in 22 BBY all the way to the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY.
Crucially, he survived Order 66 because his inhibitor chip was removed. That single medical procedure changed his fate and, by extension, helped shape the early Rebel Alliance.
Here is how that story actually unfolds on screen.
From Kamino trainee to Anakin’s right hand
Rex begins like every other clone: grown on Kamino, flash‑trained for combat, and modeled on bounty hunter Jango Fett. Reference sources place his “birth” around 32 BBY, roughly a decade before the Clone Wars erupt. He trains as an ARC trooper under ARC Captain Alpha‑17, alongside fellow future commander CC‑2224 “Cody.” During that training, Alpha starts using nicknames instead of numbers and dubs CT‑7567 “Rex.”
By the time the war opens with the First Battle of Geonosis in 22 BBY, Rex is already a captain in the Grand Army of the Republic. He commands Torrent Company, part of the elite 501st Legion under Jedi General Anakin Skywalker.
Viewers meet him in the 2008 Clone Wars theatrical film during the Battle of Christophsis. From there, the movie sends him to the vertical assault on Teth, where he and Torrent Company hold the monastery while Anakin and Ahsoka Tano evacuate Jabba’s kidnapped son. That film also gives him one of his defining lines:
> “In my book, experience outranks everything.”
Across the early seasons of The Clone Wars series, Rex is depicted as a no‑nonsense, by‑the‑book officer. He carries twin DC‑17 blaster pistols, sports painted blue “jaig eyes” on his helmet, and favors bleached blond hair rather than the standard clone buzzcut. On paper, he is a model soldier.
On screen, the story quickly gets more complicated.
Learning to question orders: Cut Lawquane and Umbara
Two major arcs in The Clone Wars push Rex from obedient captain toward independent thinker.
Facing a deserter on Saleucami
In Season 2’s “The Deserter,” Rex is wounded while chasing General Grievous on Saleucami. Local farmers take him in, and he wakes to a shock: the man who saved him is Cut Lawquane, a fellow clone who deserted after Geonosis and quietly built a family.
At first, Rex reacts exactly as Kamino intended. He calls Cut a traitor and insists that clones exist to serve the Republic. Cut counters that they are individuals, not droids, and that his duty is now to his wife and children.
When commando droids attack the farm, the two clones fight side by side. Cut saves Rex’s life. By dawn, the conversation has shifted. Rex chooses not to report him and tells Cut, “This is your home. My family is elsewhere,” then leaves the deserter’s new life intact.
The episode plants an early seed: this officer, trusted by Anakin and Ahsoka, is capable of putting conscience above absolute obedience.
Mutiny on Umbara
That idea returns at full volume in Season 4’s notorious Umbara arc (“Darkness on Umbara” through “Carnage of Krell”). When the 501st deploys to the shadowed world of Umbara, the Jedi Council temporarily pulls Anakin away and replaces him with General Pong Krell.
Krell treats the clones as expendable assets. He orders frontal assaults against fortified positions, ignores Rex’s casualty reports, and repeatedly calls the men “defective” when they question his tactics. Over four episodes, the campaign spirals from brutal to outright criminal:
- Krell sends clone units against each other by disguising one group as Umbarans.
- Rex discovers he has been tricked into firing on his own brothers.
- The battalion uncovers evidence that Krell is courting Count Dooku and the Separatists.
At the breaking point, Rex leads a mutiny. He and his men disarm and arrest Krell for treason. When no one can bring themselves to execute the Jedi general, trooper Dogma finally pulls the trigger. In the aftermath, Rex and ARC trooper Fives openly ask what will become of the clones when the war ends, because they now see themselves as more than disposable soldiers.
Critics singled out the Umbara storyline as a turning point. It showed, in blunt detail, that Rex would defy even a Jedi general when an order crossed a moral line.
That independence later becomes the thin wedge between him and Order 66.
The inhibitor chips: Fives uncovers the trap
The infamous bio‑chips that drive Order 66 enter the story in Season 6, in the arc starting with “Conspiracy.”
During a battle, trooper Tup suddenly assassinates Jedi General Tiplar. Medical droid AZI‑3 and ARC trooper Fives investigate and discover a tumor‑like implant in Tup’s brain. Kaminoan scientist Nala Se and Count Dooku, posing as “Lord Tyranus,” insist the chip is a harmless control to prevent “rogue Jedi.”
Fives keeps digging and uncovers the truth: every clone carries an inhibitor chip wired to a secret contingency known as Order 66. When triggered, the chip forces clones to murder their Jedi commanders.
He is killed before he can bring the proof to Coruscant. However, his findings are not entirely lost. Captain Rex, who has served with Fives since the early days of the war, files a report expressing concern that the chips may have “an unknown purpose.” That grievance ends up buried in encrypted archives, but it exists.
On its own, that report does nothing. Combined with Rex’s history of questioning bad orders, though, it sets up one crucial moment of resistance when Palpatine finally flips the switch.
Siege of Mandalore and Order 66: how Rex survives
Promoted to commander, deployed with Ahsoka
The Siege of Mandalore arc, released in 2020 as the final four episodes of The Clone Wars Season 7, overlaps directly with Revenge of the Sith.
Before the siege, Anakin divides the 501st. He promotes Rex to Commander and assigns him to lead a newly designated 332nd Company alongside Ahsoka Tano, who has just returned from her self‑imposed exile. In a striking visual tribute, the clones of the 332nd repaint their helmets with Ahsoka’s Togruta facial markings.
Together, Rex and Ahsoka fight to capture Maul and free Mandalore from his control. They succeed, arresting Maul and preparing to transport him to Coruscant aboard the Venator‑class Star Destroyer Tribunal.
Then the Chancellor calls.
“Find him! Fives!”
In “Shattered,” Rex receives a secure transmission from Palpatine in the ship’s command center. As Ahsoka turns away, the Emperor issues Order 66.
What happens next is one of the most tightly staged scenes in the franchise. Rex’s hands shake. He drops his helmet. He points his pistols at Ahsoka but struggles to pull the triggers. He is fighting his own brain.
In those few seconds before the chip fully seizes control, he manages to shout one clue:
> “Find him! Fives!”
Then the programming takes over. Rex orders his men to target Ahsoka and instructs them to destroy all escape pods. On paper, he is now another “good soldier” following orders.
In reality, that single shouted name gives Ahsoka a path to save him.
A surgery against the clock
Ahsoka evades the first execution attempt and accesses military files with help from droids R7‑A7, CH‑33P, and RG‑G1. In those encrypted archives, she finds Rex’s report about Fives and the inhibitor chips.
She ambushes Rex, stuns him, and drags him to the Tribunal’s medical bay while clones weld through the blast doors. Standard brain scans fail to locate the chip. With time running out, Ahsoka places a hand on Rex’s head, repeats “I am one with the Force and the Force is with me,” and guides the scanner to the implant.
The surgical system removes the chip. Moments later, clones burst into the room. Rex wakes, now free of the programming, and immediately helps Ahsoka stun the attackers instead of killing them.
Together, they fight their way to a hangar, survive Maul’s sabotage of the hyperdrive, and escape in a battered Y‑wing as the Tribunal crashes onto an unnamed moon. In the final scene of “Victory and Death,” Rex and Ahsoka bury the dead clones and leave behind a line of helmets, including Rex’s old Phase II piece, as grave markers.
Republic records list Rex as killed in action. In truth, he has vanished into the cracks of the new Empire, alive only because his inhibitor chip is gone.
The Bad Batch years: building a clone underground
For a while, Rex disappears from television. When he finally returns in 2021 with Star Wars: The Bad Batch, the war is over. The Empire is new. And he is operating as a fugitive.
Warning Clone Force 99
In Season 1, Episode 7 “Battle Scars” (June 11, 2021), Rex meets Clone Force 99 on Ord Mantell. When he realizes they still have active chips, he reacts with immediate alarm and calls the implants “ticking time bombs.”
He convinces the squad to remove them and leads them to the junkyard world Bracca, where a derelict Venator still has a working medical bay. The surgery nearly ends in disaster when Wrecker’s chip activates mid‑procedure, causing him to attack his own squad and young clone Omega. Rex helps subdue him, and the team successfully removes all their chips.
Later that season, in “War‑Mantle,” Rex contacts the Batch by holo and asks them to extract Captain Gregor from an Imperial training facility on Daro. Gregor’s capture there exposes Project War‑Mantle, the Empire’s program to phase out clones and replace them with recruited TK troopers.
Exposing Kamino and organizing resistance
By Season 2 in 2023, Rex is doing more than small rescues. He has become a point person for what fans often call the “clone underground.”
In the two‑part story “The Clone Conspiracy” and “Truth and Consequences,” Rex teams with Senator Riyo Chuchi on Coruscant. Together, they uncover that Vice Admiral Rampart ordered the Imperial bombardment of Tipoca City on Kamino, then lied to the Senate by claiming a storm destroyed the cloning facilities. Rex calls in the Bad Batch to infiltrate Rampart’s retrofitted Venator and steal the ship’s gun‑camera logs.
Armed with those records and testimony from former Kaminoan Senator Halle Burtoni, Chuchi publicly exposes Rampart. Emperor Palpatine appears in the Senate, theatrically condemns Rampart, and then uses the scandal to pass the Imperial Defense Recruitment Bill, which authorizes mass conscription and accelerates the retirement of all clones.
Rex’s operation removes one abuser but cannot stop the larger shift. In response, Echo leaves Clone Force 99 to join Rex full time, arguing that ordinary clones will need their help more than ever. Reference sources describe Rex at this stage as coordinating safe houses, extractions, and advocacy efforts for displaced troopers.
Teth base and the road to Tantiss
Season 3 in 2024 shows what that network actually looks like.
In “Infiltration,” Rex and Senator Chuchi host a secret meeting with former Raxus Senator Avi Singh at a hidden base inside a B’omarr monastery on Teth. The choice of location quietly echoes his first film appearance, when he fought up the cliffs of Teth in 2008.
A brainwashed Clone X assassin attempts to kill Singh but is captured. His data puck leads Rex to a chilling discovery: these assassins are conditioned at Mount Tantiss, and their next high‑value target is Omega. Rex calls in the Bad Batch and Crosshair for support.
Across “Infiltration” and “Extraction,” a second Clone X infiltrates the Teth base, kills several of Rex’s people, and forces an evacuation through underground hangars. At the rendezvous point, Rex and his allies are intercepted by Commander Wolffe, now serving the Empire.
Rex steps forward and reveals himself. He explains that the Empire is experimenting on clones and hunting a child. Confronted with that reality, Wolffe ultimately orders his troops to stand down and lets Rex’s group escape. It is the first clear crack in Wolffe’s Imperial loyalty, foreshadowing the moment he will later join Rex in Rebels.
Rex is not present for the final liberation of Tantiss in “The Cavalry Has Arrived.” However, the series epilogue shows Echo and Emerie Karr working with Rex and Senator Chuchi to resettle freed clones and expose Dr. Hemlock’s experiments to the wider galaxy. In other words, he remains at the center of clone resistance long after The Bad Batch fades to black.
Rebels veteran: from AT‑TE nomad to Endor commando
By the time Star Wars Rebels reaches its second season, the timeline has jumped to 4 BBY. The Empire is in full control. The Rebellion is still a loose network. And Rex is, once again, retired.
Living on Seelos
In “The Lost Commanders,” Ahsoka sends the Ghost crew to find an old ally who can help locate a rebel base. That contact turns out to be Rex, living in a heavily modified AT‑TE walker on the desert planet Seelos with Wolffe and Gregor.
They survive by hunting giant joopa worms and, at least on the surface, staying out of the galactic fight. Jedi survivor Kanan Jarrus initially reacts with fury when he sees clones on board, still traumatized by Order 66. Rex and the others assure him they removed their inhibitor chips and did not betray their Jedi.
When an Imperial probe discovers the walker, Agent Kallus arrives with AT‑AT walkers. The resulting two‑episode story, completed in “Relics of the Old Republic,” turns into a running walker battle in a sandstorm. Rex fights alongside the Ghost crew, helps cripple Kallus’s command walker, and escapes with Phoenix Squadron.
At the end of the episode, he makes a clear choice: he returns to active service and formally joins the rebellion, reuniting with Ahsoka aboard the fleet.
Closure with the Clone Wars and the road to Endor
Across later Rebels episodes, Rex becomes a familiar presence:
- In “Stealth Strike” and other missions, he trains rebels and runs assaults, while butting heads with Kanan before the two eventually trust each other.
- In “The Last Battle,” he leads a salvage trip to Agamar that becomes a literal rematch of the Clone Wars. Super Tactical Droid Kalani imprisons the rebels and demands one final “simulation” against his battle droids. Rex, reliving his trauma, insists on finishing the war, but Ezra Bridger points out that the Empire has already “won” by replacing both clones and droids. They cooperate to fend off Imperial forces, and Rex finally acknowledges that the Clone Wars were a manipulated conflict.
Rex also shares a brief but emotional exchange with Ahsoka in “Twilight of the Apprentice,” reflecting how long their shared history runs.
The most important detail, though, arrives in the Rebels finale. In “Family Reunion – and Farewell,” Sabine Wren narrates an epilogue set after Return of the Jedi and states:
> “Hera fought in the Battle of Endor, as did Commander Rex.”
That single line makes it canon that Rex not only survived the early rebellion, but fought in the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY, helping bring down the second Death Star. He is, at that point, a veteran of two galactic wars.
Fans have long speculated that he is the bearded commando seen on Endor in Return of the Jedi, known in legends material as Nik Sant. Dave Filoni has acknowledged the fun of that theory and said he likes to think Rex was at Endor, but current reference sources keep Rex and Nik Sant as separate characters. The important part for canon is simple: Rex was there, whether or not he is the man in that specific helmet.
What happens next for Rex’s story
As of December 2025, on‑screen canon leaves Rex’s post‑Endor life open. We know he fights at Geonosis in 22 BBY, survives Order 66 thanks to Ahsoka’s removal of his inhibitor chip, helps build a clone resistance network in the early years of the Empire, joins Phoenix Squadron, and reaches the Battle of Endor in 4 ABY.
Beyond that, Lucasfilm has not yet shown where he ends up. Voice actor Dee Bradley Baker has said he loves that “Rex made it all the way to Endor” and called him a “force to be reckoned with,” but those comments stop short of confirming any future plot.
What we do have, instead, is presence. The 2023 Ahsoka series cast Temuera Morrison to voice Rex in Clone Wars‑era flashbacks, including sequences from the Siege of Mandalore. The Bad Batch devoted significant time to his clone underground. Rebels anchored several episodes on his perspective.
For viewers trying to follow the character’s path, the core watchlist now stretches across four shows and nearly two decades of in‑universe history:
- The Clone Wars film and series: Rex’s origin, moral awakening, and survival of Order 66.
- The Bad Batch Seasons 1 — 3: his fugitive years, the clone resistance, and the aftermath of Kamino and Tantiss.
- Star Wars Rebels Seasons 2 — 4: his return to open rebellion and confirmation that he reaches Endor.
- Ahsoka (select episodes): live‑action flashbacks that visually link him to the larger saga.
Taken together, they explain why Rex has become a fan favorite, even ranking 36th on IGN’s “Top 100 Star Wars Characters” list. He started as one identical soldier in a sea of millions. He ended up as the clone who outlived both the Republic and the Empire, carrying the memory of the Jedi and the clones who never got their chips removed.
Whatever stories Lucasfilm decides to tell next, one thing is now firmly established in canon: Captain Rex is the bridge between eras, and he only got that far because someone on a Venator’s operating table chose to pull a chip from his head.
