Star Wars: 10 Secrets Of The Stormtrooper You Didn't Know
6. How They Took Over From The Clones
For those who haven't had the pleasure of diving into Star Wars material outside of the big-screen adventures, precisely how the clones of Jango Fett seen fighting alongside and ultimately against the Jedi in the prequels eventually get taken over by the stormtroopers seen occasionally missing on purpose in the original trilogy was a bit of a mystery.
The Expanded Universe has touched on this in the past, with it being said that a major reason human recruits eventually replaced the clones as stormtroopers was down to the fact that the latter was just too expensive to keep growing.
And it was a similar story in the new canon, too.
As explained in the Bad Batch animated series, after initially being rechristened as stormtroopers by the Emperor, the Empire soon decided that these quickly-ageing troops just weren't cost-effective anymore. Rather than just bin off all their clone soldiers, though, they actually secretly had some of their human recruits trained by these former Republic soldiers.
Following Vice Admiral Edmon Rampart's destroying of the Kaminoan cloning facility on the orders of Grand Moff Tarkin, the Imperial Defense Recruitment Bill - a legislation which would see the Empire officially stop fully relying on clone troops in their army - was put forward to the Senate. And after being tabled a few times and seemingly stopped again when Rampart was arrested for treason after that Kamino attack, Palpatine suddenly decided that this act simply highlighted how the clones could no longer be fully trusted.
It was that move which led to the bill finally being passed and clones ultimately being gradually decommissioned as the new human recruits took over.