Wait, How Many Death Stars Are There? Star Wars Might Have Missed a Few

But how many of them there were? The answer for the old canon might be complicated.

Those who have only watched the movies, and did not bother with analyzing their minute details, would, of course, immediately say "two" – the original one and the partially completed Death Star II, featured in Return of the Jedi.

Those who are somewhat familiar with the old Expanded Universe canon would say that there were three Death Stars in it – or possibly five, depending on your definition of a Death Star.

There also was the prototype Death Star, constructed at the secret Maw Installation, where the Empire established one of their think tank and superweapon construction facilities.

The prototype Death Star was a proof-of-concept battlestation, little more than a framework, which had a working superlaser, plus reactor, propulsion and control sections, needed to operate it, installed, but lacked everything else.

It appeared in The Jedi Academy trilogy of novels published in 1994, and, predictably, was destroyed at its finale.

The whole story of the Maw Installation and the development of Death Stars clashed with the prequels, but you could somewhat glue them together by saying that the framework seen at the end of Episode III ended up as the prototype Death Star.

Plus, there were the Darksaber from the novel of the same name and the Tarkin from Marvel comics, both just superlasers with all the stuff necessary to move and fire them attached, which made them similar to the prototype Death Star in function, but not in design, and much more vulnerable than a full Death Star.

So they might not count.

But there was yet another, much more obscure Death Star in the old Expanded Universe. It owed its existence to the Star Tours ride at Disneyland – and yes, contents of theme park rides were and still are considered canon.

The problem was, that ride culminated with a Death Star attack, which combined elements of the two Death Star attacks from movies (it took place over Endor, but featured a Death Star similar to the first one, and a trench run).

So, Leland Chee, who worked on fixing continuity issues back then, had to invent a story of a post-Palptatine Imperial warlord, who took a habitation sphere civilian station and flew it to Endor, so that it could be converted into another Death Star.

So, there were at least four of them.