The Mandoverse has been stuffed full of cameos of familiar characters from across the galaxy, whether they’re from movies (like Luke Skywalker), TV shows (like Ahsoka popping up in The Book of Boba Fett), or even from Star Wars books (like Cobb Vanth). In The Mandalorian Season 2, Boba Fett (Temeura Morrison) made his live-action debut, bringing the face of the Clone Wars — and the clones that fought in them — into contemporary Star Wars.
But while Boba Fett got his own spinoff, one of the most beloved clone characters won’t get the same attention. Captain Rex, who formed a close bond with Ahsoka over the course of The Clone Wars, had a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it cameo in Ahsoka Episode 5’s flashbacks. Does that mean we’ll see Rex in future Ahsoka episodes? Probably not, and it’s for a bleak reason.
Clones like Rex, Cody, and all the others we saw throughout the prequel movies and animated TV shows were created on Kamino to serve as an army for the New Republic. Genetic replicas of the bounty hunter Jango Fett, they were meant to be perfect soldiers. However, while little Boba Fett aged naturally, the clones aged on an accelerated timeline.
When Obi-Wan Kenobi tours the cloning facility in Attack of the Clones, his guide sings the praises of the technology. “A mature clone would take a lifetime to grow,” she says. “Now, we can do it in half the time.” That implies that clones age at twice the rate as non-clone humans, or at the very least they speed through puberty.
That, unfortunately, makes a Rex cameo in Ahsoka difficult. By this point in the Star Wars timeline, Rex would be well into his 80s. Throw in advanced aging, and it’s unlikely Rex — or any other clone — would still be alive to make an appearance. At best, we’d see Ahsoka rush to his bedside as he succumbs to old age, which would just be a bummer.
Still, that doesn’t completely rule out more Rex in Star Wars. Ahsoka proved that live-action flashbacks are still fair game, so we could still see all the clones we love from The Clone Wars in due time. They just won’t be palling around with Din Djarin.
