George Lucas cut what would have been a game-changing Sith Lord cameo from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, but he did it for the right reasons. The animated hit Star Wars: The Clone Wars didn’t just offer audiences a deeper examination of the Jedi Order’s waning strength during the orchestrated conflict; its episodic structure also allowed for further exploration of the Force, the dark side, and the Sith.

In The Clone Wars season 3’s Mortis arc, for instance, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, and Ahsoka Tano are stranded on Mortis, a physical conduit for the entirety of the Force. There, they meet the Son, the Daughter, and the Father, who act as living embodiments of the dark side, the light, and the balance in the Force, respectively.

Two fan-favorite Sith Lords were planned to appear in season 3, episode 17, “Ghosts of Mortis”: Darth Bane, creator of the Rule of Two, and Darth Revan, from Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. They were initially meant to be the influence behind the Son’s wrongdoings. Their scene never made it to air, however, and Star Wars voice acting veteran Sam Witwer recently took to X to explain why.

George Lucas Cut This Sith Cameo For A Good Reason

Witwer, who portrayed both Darth Maul throughout The Clone Wars and the Son during the Mortis arc, explained that Lucas cut Darth Bane and Darth Revan’s cameos because he didn’t want to contradict what had already been established about the Sith’s understanding of the Force and the dark side. “There are no Sith ghosts,” Witwer wrote, “They cannot conceive of anything beyond death.”

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Rather than becoming Force Ghosts, Sith could use an ability known as essence transfer to transfer their consciousness into another living body or, in extreme cases, an inanimate object. This kept them tied to the physical world, a perfect representation of their refusal to “conceive of anything beyond death.”

Given the undiscoverable nature of Mortis, though, it’s unlikely Bane or Revan would ever have managed to leave a piece of themselves behind there.

Becoming a Force Ghost is no easy feat for a Jedi, either, and not all Jedi are capable of it. As revealed by The Clone Wars, Qui-Gon Jinn was the first Jedi (that we know of) to discover this ability. In The Clone Wars season 6, Qui-Gon’s spirit returns to guide Yoda on a journey of spiritual self-discovery. Qui-Gon tells the Jedi Master:

“You will learn to preserve your life force, and so, manifest a consciousness which will allow you to commune with the living after death.“

The Conquest Of Death Is The Goal Of The Sith

The Sith’s inability to become pure Force Ghosts is one of the great ironies of the Star Wars galaxy. All the Sith want is power and everlasting life – this desire directly led to Emperor Palpatine’s grotesque cloning and essence transfer experiments – and yet their very nature prevents them from becoming truly immortalized within the Living Force.

Matt Stover’s novelization of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which was authored in consultation with Lucas, sheds more light on why the Sith were cursed to tether their existence to the physical world instead. In a conversation between Qui-Gon and Yoda, which continues the same plot thread as was introduced in The Clone Wars, Qui-Gon explains:

“The ultimate goal of the Sith, yet they can never achieve it. It comes only by the release of self, not the exaltation of self. It comes through compᴀssion, not greed. Love is the answer to the darkness.“

The Jedi who’ve become Force Ghosts, including Qui-Gon, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Luke Skywalker, and more, did so out of love. They accepted that death was a natural part of life. Their ability to remain in a spiritual capacity came from a desire to help those left behind, rather than remaining for their own gain.

This is most obviously exemplified by Yoda, who only ever truly appeared when a Jedi needed guidance, such as Ezra Bridger in Star Wars Rebels, or Luke in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. The Sith weren’t capable of such selflessness. George Lucas was right to recognize that when he cut Bane and Revan’s cameos from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.