General Grievous Returns To Star Wars In An All-New Show

Published Aug 6, 2026, 2:30 PM EDT

Sean is a senior writer for ScreenRant and has been writing about new TV releases since December 2023. He has received multiple advance screenings of popular shows and ideated his own coverage read by hundreds of thousands of readers.

Sean is a self-published author of a Western novel. Sean has also written award-winning opinion pieces related to local politics while getting his Bachelor's degree in journalism.

There are a lot of reasons Grievous has become a fan-favorite villain. His backstory as a Kaleesh warlord turned cyborg, his penchant for collecting the lightsabers of Jedi he's killed, his spider-like appendages, and more, all make for a great antagonist. Despite his popularity, however, Grievous has always been a tertiary character. He was a recurring villain in The Clone Wars, but he died rather unceremoniously in Revenge of the Sith, and his most recent appearance, in 2024's Tales of the Empire, only allotted him two or three minutes of screen time.

For fans who have been wanting more of Grievous, however, a new Star Wars show can finally offer them something. Grievous himself doesn't appear in Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi, as it's non-canon and takes place in an alternate version of the galaxy far, far away, but the anime series does feature his spiritual successor. That successor is a different character, but he offers everything a fan of General Grievous could want out of a Star Wars show.

The Ninth Jedi’s Gennoh Follows The Same Arc General Grievous Does

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for The Ninth Jedi.Gennoh Ikagi, dubbed "The Last Sith" in The Ninth Jedi, is essentially Star Wars Legends' version of General Grievous. Like Grievous, who acted as the leader of the CIS' droid army under Count Dooku, Gennoh also acts as a subordinate to General Nawaam and leads his forces. More importantly, Gennoh is a lightsaber-wielding warrior who, over the course of The Ninth Jedi, replaces almost every part of his body with cybernetic enhancements, just as Grievous did.

By the ending of The Ninth Jedi, the only part of Gennoh's body that is still organic is his eye, much like how Grievous had only a few organs and his eyes left from his original body. Both characters end up losing what makes them human (or Kaleesh) in a fruitless bid for power. Gennoh even has four mechanical arms, just like Grievous, and they even die the same fiery death as their internal organs are cooked from the inside out in a dramatic fight with a Jedi.

For all intents and purposes, Gennoh is Star Wars Legends' version of General Grievous. They have the same character arc, where they start out as decorated warriors only to go insane and lose themselves completely in cybernetic enhancements and a hopeless, all-consuming quest for vengeance. Grievous may not be in The Ninth Jedi, but for fans of the Revenge of the Sith villain, Gennoh is a very familiar replacement.

Gennoh Also Replicated One Of The Worst Parts About General Grievous

Unfortunately, Gennoh Ikagi's similarities to General Grievous also extend past their character arcs and into the way they're depicted. Grievous is one of many Star Wars villains who had a great and cool concept that went severely underutilized. He was built up as a legendary warrior who could match any Jedi despite not having a connection to the Force, only to die unceremoniously. Then, The Clone Wars painted him as a coward who would run from any fight at the slightest sign of disadvantage.

To this day, Grievous has only actually lived up to the hype surrounding him on-screen twice. The now non-canon Clone Wars miniseries saw him decimate Jedi, with only Mace Windu being able to put a stop to him, and the handful of minutes he spent hunting Nightsisters of Dathomir in Tales of the Empire. Grievous is supposed to be a horror monster hunting Jedi, yet the vast majority of Star Wars paints him as a wheezing coward who loses as many fights as he wins.

Gennoh, unfortunately, gets the same treatment in The Ninth Jedi. He's built up as "The Last Sith," capable of immense Force feats and incredible physical feats thanks to his cybernetics. Despite that legend, Gennoh loses every fight he starts, from achieving only a draw with Lah Kara in the premiere to being summarily beaten by Lah Zhima twice later on. He has a few cool moments, like revealing his multiple arms, but in the end, Gennoh is only there to make the Jedi look good. Perhaps it's fitting that The Ninth Jedi's version of Grievous fails to live up to the hype just as much as the canon version does.