Are Sith Able To Become Force Ghosts?

We’ve seen Jedi like Obi-Wan, Yoda, and Luke achieve immortality through the Force — becoming luminous spirits who can guide the living. But what about the Sith? 

If the light side grants peace and transcendence, could the dark side twist that same power into something else?

Sith Can’t Become Force Ghosts As Lucas Explained

The simplest answer comes straight from George Lucas himself: no Sith has ever become a true Force ghost. Lucas explained that only Jedi who let go of their ego — who accept death and become one with the cosmic Force — can preserve their consciousness after death.

That belief isn’t just philosophical — it’s something Lucas enforced in canon. During production of The Clone Wars, Lucas personally ordered the removal of a scene that featured Darth Revan and Darth Bane appearing as spirits in the Mortis arc. 

According to Dave Filoni, Lucas cut the sequence because it broke his rule about the Force: Sith cannot exist beyond death in spirit form. They can’t retain identity like the Jedi do; the dark side devours them completely.

That’s the fundamental divide. A Jedi achieves immortality by letting go — surrendering the self and joining the cosmic Force. A Sith, by contrast, clings to control and refuses to release their power. Their will is bound to their flesh, their rage, and their fear, and when that ends, so do they.

That’s why figures like Darth Sidious and Darth Plagueis obsessed over cheating death instead of transcending it. They knew the dark side couldn’t offer true immortality, only manipulation, essence transfer, or cloning.

To the Sith, death is defeat.

The Sith Exist As Ghost But it Has Attach to Something

For the Jedi, becoming one with the Force means freedom — they can exist beyond time and space. We’ve seen it many times: Qui-Gon guiding Yoda, Obi-Wan appearing before Luke, and later, even Yoda and Anakin returning through the living Force.

But for the Sith, their “survival” after death is something entirely different. They can’t truly become one with the Force, so their essence lingers — bound to physical places like temples, tombs, or cursed artifacts. And we see a perfect example of that in The Clone Wars.

When Yoda journeys to Moraband in Season 6’s episode “Sacrifice,” he encounters what looks like the spirit of Darth Bane — the ancient Sith Lord who created the Rule of Two. But this wasn’t really Bane. As Dave Filoni and George Lucas explained, it was a dark-side echo, a haunting left behind by the power of the Sith homeworld itself. Yoda wasn’t talking to a living consciousness — he was facing a memory made of rage and darkness.

We see a similar concept in Legends, especially in Kevin J. Anderson’s 1994 novel Dark Apprentice. In that story, the ancient Sith Lord Exar Kun survives long after his physical death — not as a true Force ghost, but as a spirit bound to the ruins of a Massassi temple on Yavin 4. His essence is trapped there, sustained by the lingering dark energy of the place and the fear of those who enter it.

A nearly identical idea appears in Canon too, but this time through Darth Vader himself.

In Star Wars (2020) #6, Luke Skywalker visits an abandoned Jedi outpost from the High Republic era, searching for a lightsaber. When he picks up a Temple Guard hilt, he’s suddenly attacked by the burning spirit of the Grand Inquisitor, his ghost still aflame from the fire that consumed him in Rebels. Luke manages to defeat the apparition, but what comes next reveals something far darker.

We cut to the Grand Inquisitor speaking directly to Vader, begging for release: “Will there never… be a chance… of release?” Vader answers coldly, “You are but a tool, shaped to serve my purposes. You will continue.”

The Grand Inquisitor has returned in some fashion as revealed in Star Wars #6; Vader and the Emperor are using him to go after Luke
byu/IllusiveManJr inStarWarsLeaks

It’s then implied that Vader (or possibly Sidious) used a dark-side ritual to bind the Inquisitor’s spirit to the ruins of that Jedi outpost — condemning him to serve forever as a twisted guardian, killing anyone who dares seek Jedi knowledge.