New Star Wars prequel finally explains how so many Jedi survived Order 66

When Order 66 came from Palpatine to the clone troopers throughout the galaxy it was supposed to be a trap that wiped out the ancient order.

Of course, this wouldn’t have worked too well given the expansion of the Star Wars universe in recent years - everyone loves a Jedi.

The lives of the clone troopers are explored in The Bad Batch showing on Disney+

Across TV, film, books, and comics, we’ve seen more and more Jedi come out of the woodwork to star in a new part of the franchise.

This begs the question, just how did so many of them survive? Is it just a massive plot hole?

Perhaps it was the latter, until now.

This point has been discussed in a new book, The Secrets of the Clone Troopers, and we now have some kind of answer to the question.

Written by Mark Sumerak, the book features information from Captain Rex: “Even though Order 66 was designed to be a directive that we couldn't resist, not every clone ended up pulling the trigger.”

This, it turns out, is because some clone troopers, like those in Clone Force 99, were “less susceptible to the inhibitor chip's influence due to their genetic augmentations.”

That’s not all. It also transpires that some clone troopers were " strong enough to resist, at least until their Jedi general could escape.”

It kind of makes sense in some ways. After all, emotion plays a big part in Star Wars, it’s the driving force behind whether someone gives in to the dark side.

Perhaps Palpatine underestimated the bonds that some troopers would have made with the Jedi they travelled and worked with.

This theory also tracks with what we’ve seen in The Bad Batch, which features mutant clones whose programming didn’t go according to plan.

This reasoning also provides some clarity on why the surviving Jedi seem to be so random with many slipping through the net.