Warning! This article includes spoilers for The Ninth Jedi.
Star Wars has officially redefined what it means to be a “Gray Jedi.” The concept of the Gray Jedi has long been debated in Star Wars, ever since it was first introduced in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, which included the books, comics, and games published in the wake of George Lucas’ franchise-launching Star Wars movie in 1977. Famously, after Disney took over Lucasfilm, the studio de-canonized the entirety of the Expanded Universe, rebranding it into Star Wars Legends and firmly establishing its own primary continuity.
This meant that ideas such as Gray Jedi became obsolete; their very existence contradicted everything Disney’s Star Wars wanted to establish about the Jedi and their beliefs. Essentially, in Legends, the Gray Jedi were defined in one of two ways. First, Gray Jedi included those Jedi who didn’t always adhere to the Order’s increasingly restrictive expectations. Qui-Gon Jinn has long been considered a Gray Jedi because he defied the Jedi Council in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and was more interested in following the will of the Living Force.
The second definition recognized the Gray Jedi who dabbled between the light and dark side of the Force without ever fully succumbing to the dark side’s dangerous influence. That’s what separated them from the Sith, who have always been driven by passion, hatred, and greed. Often, a Gray Jedi embodied both of these definitions.
Now, however, in Star Wars‘ latest show, Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi, the galaxy far, far away has introduced a third definition of a Gray Jedi. As Star Wars’ first full-length anime series and the first official spinoff of the non-canonical anthology show Star Wars: Visions, Production I.G’s The Ninth Jedi explores a distant future in which the Jedi and the Sith are nearly extinct, save for a handful of masterless Jedi trying to resurrect the Order. Before they can do so, though, they must face the terrifying General Nawaam, a Force-wielder who is neither Jedi nor Sith but something in between.
Gray Jedi Have A Long History In Star Wars
In the old Expanded Universe, the concept of Gray Jedi was established in response to the Jedi Council’s attempt to centralize the Order’s power structure and rewrite the Jedi Code. Millennia ago, the Jedi were scattered across the galaxy. After decades of conflict, the Jedi’s ranks had greatly diminished, and the Jedi High Council believed it was necessary to reform the Order to protect themselves from the Sith and other galactic threats.
As a result, all Jedi were to obey the Jedi Council and the new, much stricter Jedi Code, which included rules against attachment, forbidding potential students from training as Jedi if they were above a certain age — the same rule that Qui-Gon Jinn fought against when he found Anakin Skywalker on Tatooine in The Phantom Menace — and restrictions for the type of Force powers that Jedi were allowed to use, including those normally associated with the dark side.
Naturally, this caused the newly reformed Order to splinter, with both the Jedi and the Sith referring to those who defied the Jedi Council’s will as Gray Jedi. The Gray Jedi weren’t strictly enemies of the Jedi. Instead, they sought balance, rejecting the teachings of the Sith while forging their own path, using dark side powers for good (or neutral) deeds. Some of the most famous Legends-era Gray Jedi include Knights of the Old Republic‘s Jolee Bindo, Revan, and Luke Skywalker’s direct descendant, Cade Skywalker.
Canon Star Wars characters often associated with the concept of Gray Jedi are Qui-Gon Jinn, Ahsoka Tano, who chose to leave the Jedi Order at the height of the Clone Wars, Quinlan Vos, who long struggled to overcome the lure of the dark side, Asajj Ventress, a former Sith apprentice, and even Rey Skywalker. Still, Gray Jedi aren’t an accepted canon faction in Star Wars, so while these characters may exhibit traits associated with their ideology, they’ve never been officially labeled as such.
The Ninth Jedi Includes A New Interpretation Of Gray Jedi
While there have traditionally been two ways to define a Gray Jedi, Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi offers a third interpretation. In this version of the Star Wars galaxy, a lightsaber’s crystal reacts in real-time to the wielder’s heart and mind. That means that lightsabers can change color without bleeding or purifying the crystals within them. The Jedi still use green, blue, and purple lightsabers, and the Sith wield red, but there’s another important color that takes the spotlight in The Ninth Jedi: silver.
Three characters wield silver lightsabers in The Ninth Jedi, including lightsabersmith and Jedi Lah Zhima, his daughter, Jedi trainee Lah Kara, and former Jedi Padawan Nawaam. They alone achieve a unique state of “nothingness” in the Force, connected to neither the light side nor the dark side, the Jedi nor the Sith. They’re entirely devoid of emotion, their intentions neither good nor bad. Nawaam, in fact, has based his entire conquest of the galaxy on the belief that this state of “nothingness” is the only way to achieve true peace, and that the rules that have so long defined the Jedi and the Sith are antiquated and meaningless.
As long as they aren’t swayed by the hatred of the dark side or the optimism of the light, they remain connected to this “nothingness.” It’s a dangerous path to walk, however, and it’s not truly balanced. They’ve essentially retreated into themselves; Lah Zhima first accessed this emptiness to contend with the fact that he needed to kill his former friend and Jedi Master. Kara reaches for it because she fears the dark side’s sway and wants to prevent herself from killing again.
The Ninth Jedi Proves Why The Concept Of Gray Jedi Is Flawed
Though The Ninth Jedi‘s interpretation of Gray Jedi and “nothingness” in the Force is undeniably interesting, it also once again proves why the concept of Gray Jedi is inherently flawed (and why it’s unlikely to be formally reintroduced in Star Wars canon). In the end, as Nawaam and Kara face off during The Ninth Jedi‘s climactic battle, neither retains their state of nothingness. Kara once again embraces the call of the light side, while Nawaam lets his frustration and his desire to win get the best of him. Kara’s lightsaber returns to her original green, while Nawaam’s — which was blue before it turned silver — turns red.
The Force isn’t a scale or spectrum. The light side is the Force, the energy that binds together the cycle of life and all living things within it. The dark side is its corruption. It was always going to be impossible for Nawaam to achieve “nothingness” forever. Creating a world-killing canon and conquering planets are inherently violent actions, no matter the intention, destroying the lifeblood of the Force. Morally gray characters will always exist in Star Wars, and the Jedi are far from perfect, but becoming a true Gray Jedi? That seems to be impossible.
All episodes of Star Wars: Visions Presents – The Ninth Jedi are streaming now on Disney+.
- Release Date
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August 5, 2026
- Network
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Hulu, Disney+
- Directors
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Shunsuke Tada
- Writers
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Mitsuyasu Sakai
Cast
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Chinatsu Akasaki
Lah Kara (voice)
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Tetsuo Kanao
Juro (voice)
