The closest answer is that, like natural-born humans, a clone’s lifespan varies, although they probably weren’t designed to live more than 50 human years (that would make a clone 100 years old). Of course, this doesn’t exactly answer the question of how long clones are meant to live in Star Wars. This would certainly explain why Rex looks so much older in Star Wars Rebels, which is set almost two decades after the Clone Wars. Now, taking into account that clones would need 10 additional years to develop (20 in clone years), that would make a member of the very first batch of clones about 64 years old in clone years at the start of A New Hope. That’s 44 years in terms of a clone’s accelerated growth. If the Clone Wars began in 22 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), that would mean that 22 years had passed in between the war and A New Hope. Meanwhile, the cloning facilities on Kamino were shut down and the remaining clones were retired from service. These clones served as Imperial stormtroopers for years until they were eventually replaced by natural-born humans whose loyalty and fanaticism towards the Emperor could be easily exploited. Given no other choice but to follow orders, the clones continued to serve Emperor Palpatine until their deaths.
The Clone Army became a useful weapon of mass extermination with a single order. Three years after the Grand Army of the Republic first left Kamino, the clones were enlisted as the first generation of Imperial stormtroopers tasked with keeping planets in line and quelling resistance to the new, authoritarian government.Ĭontrol chips implanted in their brains at the time of birth also compelled these soldiers to turn on the Jedi during Order 66. In fact, they were used as the tools of a new galactic order, as the Republic turned into the Empire. The end of the Clone Wars didn’t mean freedom for the clone troopers, either. Born into servitude, all most clones ever get to know during their lifetimes is the battlefield. They were genetically engineered for one purpose: to kill and die on the frontlines for their makers.
And nothing about this war is as tragic as the clones themselves. While The Clone Wars begins as a series about heroism and the good winning over the bad, it’s clear by season 7 (and if you watched Revenge of the Sith in 2005) that this story is actually a tragedy.
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