These Are The Oldest Characters In The Star Wars Universe

The Star Wars universe is filled with a variety of different creatures. There are humans, droids, Wookiees, Hutts, whatever Yoda's species is, and countless other beasts we run into, if only briefly, in the extensive galaxy of the Star Wars franchise. Some of these folks are insanely old. Yoda states that he's 900 years old in Return of the Jedi – and he's not even the oldest.

In comparison, other races live much shorter life spans. Humans rarely live past 100 years, unless they are assisted by machinery or the Force. Or, for another example, Gungans are in a similar boat as humans and likewise rarely live past 100 years of age.

With so many different characters from various species, we thought it would be fun to break down the ages of the oldest characters in the Star Wars universe. As a quick note before we jump in, we're sticking mostly with canon when we mention these characters and cite these ages. Also, you should know that Star Wars divides its history into BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) and ABY (After the Battle of Yavin) — this is the battle that takes place in A New Hope. One last note: 0 BBY and 0 ABY comprise a single year.

To refresh your memory, Mon Mothma is a politician and leader within the Rebel Alliance. During Return of the Jedi, she briefs the fighters on the plan to assault the Death Star. This is where she delivers that famous and ominous line, "Many Bothans died to bring us this information." Although she seemingly disappears after that movie, Mon Mothma does continue to live into the sequel trilogy, and we also have a precise date for her birth. Star Wars: Rogue One: The Ultimate Visual Guide reveals that Mon Mothma was born 46 years before the events of Rogue One, which would be 46 BBY.

So, by the time The Rise of Skywalker takes place in 35 ABY, Mon Mothma would be about 84 years old. All things considered, it's actually kind of amazing that an 80-year-old human makes it on this list, especially when you have nonhuman species that live for so long. Several other characters, unfortunately, perished in all the fighting that took place during the movies, prematurely ending their lives. And we don't hear too much about the ages of other characters. This made room for Mon Mothma to live long enough to make it on this list.

It's really hard to talk about Admiral Gial Ackbar without saying "It's a trap!" — a famous line-turned-meme that he delivers in Return of the Jedi. But with that aside, Akbar is a high-ranking military leader in the Rebel Alliance and most notably led the Rebel fleet against the second Death Star. Later, Ackbar helped the Resistance fight against the First Order under the leadership of Leia Organa until finally dying in combat during The Last Jedi.

On top of being a veteran soldier and outstanding tactician, Ackbar lived to his mid-eighties. Ackbar is a Mon Calamari, an amphibious humanoid species, and while they live longer than humans, Ackbar was killed before he reached old age. In the Star Wars canon novel Bloodline, it states that Gial Ackbar is in his eighties during the events of the book. And in a tweet from Del Rey Star Wars, it was revealed that Bloodline takes place six years before The Force Awakens, which, in turn, takes place in 34 ABY, as does The Last Jedi. Ultimately, that means Ackbar was born before 52 BBY and died in 34 ABY. So when we put that all together, Ackbar was at least 86 years old when he fell in battle in The Last Jedi.

Yes, our long-eared Gungan is one of the oldest characters in Star Wars, although we don't see much of him on screen in his later years. After helping in the Battle of Naboo in The Phantom Menace, Jar Jar Binks got involved in politics in the Galactic Senate. Eventually, Binks encouraged the Senate to give emergency powers to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, which was a key step for Palpatine turning the Republic into the Galactic Empire. As a result, Jar Jar Binks became an outcast to his people and took to the streets as a performer. As far as we know, he lived to the time of the final film, The Rise of Skywalker. 

Star Wars: Episode I Insider's Guide provides deeper insights on events and characters that we meet in Phantom Menace, including Jar Jar Binks. It tells us that Binks was born in 52 BBY. Meanwhile, we know that The Rise of Skywalker takes place in 35 ABY, which means he was about 87 years old at the end of the saga. We know some species can live way past 87, but the reason Jar Jar makes this list is because one, he doesn't die in combat like other characters, and two, we just often don't learn about the ages of other characters.

Darth Sidious, born Sheev Palpatine, is a human from the planet of Naboo. Normally, even in the Star Wars universe, humans have an average lifespan of about 70 or 80 years. As you probably already know, Sidious is an exception to this rule due to his brilliance and powers as a Sith Lord. But we're getting ahead of ourselves. In the canon novel Tarkin, the age of Darth Sidious is mentioned. It says that Palpatine was born about 65 years before the rise of the Galactic Empire, an event that takes place in Revenge of the Sith, which is the year 19 BBY. This means Palpatine's birth year is approximately 84 BBY.

Now, we know that Sidious was chasing after immortality, much like his master Plagueis. And even though Sidious didn't unlock everything, he did learn a lot about how to prolong his life, so he made preparations in case he should die. On Exegol, we see that Sidious' life has been prolonged by life-sustaining machinery and also dark Sith magic, as we see him siphon the life force from Rey and Ben. These instruments allowed him to extend his life beyond the normal human life span, although he dies, of course, in The Rise of Skywalker. At the end of his life, Sidious is about 119 years old.

Thank goodness there are people like Han Solo who can interpret what Chewbacca is saying. How do people even learn the Wookiee language, anyway? Our beloved hairy friend Chewie is a Wookiee who hails from the planet Kashyyyk, which means he ages a little differently than humans like us. The age of Chewbacca has been debated before but was confirmed in the movie Solo, when it was plainly stated. During Solo: A Star Wars Story, it's confirmed that Chewbacca is 190 years old. 

With a little bit of math, we can figure out that Chewie is over 230 years old by the very last film. Wookieepedia pegs Han and Chewie's first meeting as taking place in 10 BBY, and The Rise of Skywalker takes place in 35 ABY. That means we need to add 45 years to Chewbacca's age of 190, bringing us to a grand total of 235 years at the end of the saga. And even at that age, Chewie is still incredibly strong. He can choke people, knock stormtroopers out with one swing, and fight in battles.

It's not just heroes who live for a long time. Unfortunately, some villains also live for centuries at a time in the Star Wars galaxy. One of them is the crime lord Jabba the Hutt. The Hutts are pretty unforgettable, but if you need a refresher, they're the giant slugs who usually oversee criminal activity, like smuggling, gambling, and bounty hunting. Jabba is a particularly nasty Hutt, loving to feed victims to his "pet" beasts, not to mention the fact that he has a particular beef with the lovable Han Solo.

While Jabba's age is not stated in the movies, we do learn more about it from other sources. In Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need to Know, it states that Jabba died at the age of 604 years old in Return of the Jedi. That means that when Emperor Palpatine was a wee little baby, Jabba the Hutt had been trading slaves and smuggling drugs for centuries.

If you're a Star Wars, fan then it's no surprise to you that Yoda is on this list. Yoda's incredible age is explicitly stated in Return of the Jedi. When Luke Skywalker returns to Dagobah to finish his training with Master Yoda, he realizes that Yoda is looking rather old and frail. Yoda catches Luke's expression and says, "Hmm. That face you make. Look I so old to young eyes?" Luke tries to hide the fact that he noticed. Soon after, Yoda says, "When 900 years old you reach, look as good you will not. Hmm?" Straight from the horse's mouth, Yoda lived to at least 900 years old.

Star Wars: Galactic Atlas explains that the events in Return of the Jedi take place in 4 ABY. So if Yoda died this year at exactly 900 years old, that means our little, green friend was born in 896 BBY. Of course, it's possible that Yoda was just rounding to 900 years. Either way, that many years makes him way older than most characters in the franchise. You may be wondering what Yoda did during all those centuries. Well, he clues us in. In The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda tells Luke, "For 800 years have I trained Jedi."

The Force Awakens kicked off the sequel trilogy by bringing old characters back to life and also introducing new characters as well. One of the newer characters is Maz Kanata, a small, yellow alien who always seems to be wearing goggles. Kanata has quite an interesting personality and history. Even though she used to be a smuggler and a pirate, she manages a tavern in her castle, where she welcomes travelers of all kinds. She also collects antiques, including the lightsaber that Anakin Skywalker forged during the Clone Wars.

When our main characters Rey and Finn are going to meet Kanata, Finn asks Han Solo if she can be trusted. Han's response is, "Relax, kid. She's run this watering hole for a thousand years." It's pretty impressive that someone stuck with a business for that long, and we can assume that Kanata is at least 1,000 years old, making her older than Yoda. If you were hoping for something more specific, Wookieepedia puts her year of birth at 973 BBY, which would make Maz 1,008 years old by The Rise of Skywalker.

If you don't know, Huyang (voiced by David Tenant) hails from the animated series The Clone Wars. This droid specializes in teaching young Jedi how to construct lightsabers. Upon his ship, the Crucible, groups of young Jedi will go on an expedition to assemble their lightsabers. It's kind of a rite of passage of sorts. In the episode "A Test of Strength" (season five, episode seven) we get a sense of Huyang's age. It mentions that Huyang has been instructing younglings on how to construct lightsabers for at least 1,000 generations. In fact, Huyang even taught Yoda how to build his lightsaber, and Yoda is 900 years old when he dies.

So we don't know the exact age of Huyang, but given that he must be at least 1,000 years old, he immediately makes this list. We imagine when you live for that long, you end up just estimating your age, so Huyang may be even a few hundred years older than 1,000. So yeah, the dude is really old. Granted, he's a droid, so he has a bit of an advantage over biological characters. But as we all know, droids can have as much personality as non-droids, so he absolutely qualifies as a character.

Alright, we have a confession to make. Technically, the sarlacc isn't exactly what you would call a character, but still, we're including it here because we have an in-movie hint at its age that's easy to reference. To jog your memory, the sarlaccs are giant, carnivorous alien monsters, and the one you're probably most familiar with is the one at the Great Pit of Carkoon. In Return of the Jedi, Jabba the Hutt flies his sail barge out to the Great Pit of Carkoon because he plans on executing our heroes by feeding them to this terrifying, plant-like monster with tentacles. That's the sarlacc we're talking about.

Before Jabba throws them in, he uses C-3PO to give a speech about their execution. And in that speech, C-3PO mentions a very interesting fact about the sarlacc. He says, "In his belly, you will find a new definition of pain and suffering, as you are slowly digested over a thousand years." Yikes. We're not sure how any person would live to 1,000 years in the stomach of such a creature, but we'll pass. Anyway, if it takes that long to digest even something like a hamburger, we're assuming it's going to live much, much longer than that. That automatically makes it older than most people in the universe. For what it's worth, a Star Wars trading card released in 2015 states that sarlaccs reach maturity at 30,000 years.  So, yeah, the one in Return of the Jedi is old.

Bendu (sometimes called "The Bendu") is a very large, ancient Force wielder from Star Wars Rebels, first appearing in the opening TV movie of season three, Steps Into Shadow. He embodies the center or neutrality of the Force. Instead of going toward the light side or dark side, Bendu attempts to rid himself of all light and dark side tendencies. And he also trains others in this art, including Jedi knight Kanan Jarrus. Bendu is a powerful, god-like being, displaying amazing abilities like vanishing, seeing into the future, transforming into other objects, and telepathically communicating. Plus, he's incredibly wise. Heck, you get the vibe that Bendu could even mentor someone like Yoda. 

Bendu's age is not stated, so yes, we're basing this on conjecture. When we first encounter Bendu, he is on the planet Atollon, where he recently woke up from a "deep slumber." That alone may put him on this list if it was a hundred or thousand-year nap, but let's look at more intel. All in all, Bendu feels more like a manifestation of the Force rather than a person, which puts him in a class similar to the Ones (ancient Force wielders from The Clone Wars). He knows about the ancient religion of the Sith, and at the time of saying this, the Sith were supposedly extinct for 1,000 years. And Bendu is called "ancient." So while we don't know his age, we're pretty sure this guy is older than most people on this list.

The Ones first appeared in The Clone Wars series, in the episode "Overlords," which is season three, episode 15. They are a mysterious family of Force wielders, going by the names the Father, the Son, and the Daughter. Containing immense power and wisdom, the Ones are essentially the embodiment of the Force itself — the Son embodies the dark side, the Daughter embodies the light side, and the Father embodies the balance of the Force. Some people in the Star Wars universe even worship the Ones as deities.

While it's unknown exactly how old the Ones are, we can deduce that they are extremely old. Just to give you an idea of how old they are, it's stated that the Father has observed the balance of the Force for eons. Now, while "eon" is usually used less formally, it literally refers to one billion years. The Jedi Order has a recorded history that mentions the Ones in ancient events, and on one occasion, you can even see the Ones painted on a mural at a Jedi temple. So we can't get specific, but essentially, we're to take away that the Ones have been around for as long as the Force has existed — and perhaps as long as the universe itself.