Duskrunner, a Real Life Star Wars Murder Mystery

It was the Wookie, in the Cargo Hold, with the Lightsaber. If only it had been so simple.

By now, oceans of ink have been written about the tragedy that marked Disney's Duskrunner, a murder mystery miniseries in the Star Wars Universe.

In case you haven't heard about it, here's the quick version: on the final day of shooting, actress Marissa Douglas, star of the show, was found dead. Within hours, the internet came up with crazy conspiracy theories about her death. They didn't care about the tragedy itself and how it affected Douglas' family, they only cared about the 'mystery.'

But, it's impossible to deny the appeal of this case. High profile actress, a troubled production, a fictitious murder mystery bleeding into real life. I was caught in it myself, I read the theories, I connected the dots. Did her co-star Zachary James do it out of envy of her surging career? Did she have dirt on some Disney producer? I let myself be convinced that someone in the cast or crew had murdered Douglas. At one point, at the height of my murder craziness, I (jokingly) pointed at rookie director Sven Cairo as the killer. After all, there was some bad blood between him and Douglas… but that's just one of a thousand theories.

Honestly, it was a great two weeks to be a Star Wars fan with an addiction to internet drama.

Now, it's been months since the LA Police Department has said anything new about the case. For the most part, no one was talking about Marissa Douglas. Until last night, that is.

In a move that surprised everyone, Disney decided to release Duskrunner on Disney+. No drum rolls, no press, no comments. By this point, we all know the Mouse demands to be fed, but it's hard not to feel a little grossed out by Disney's calousness.

Anyway, I can't say much about that, because here I am, reviewing the three episodes of Duskrunner. I'm part of the machine, and, for the most part, I have no problem with it. However, it was impossible for me to simply watch the show. I could never stop thinking about what happened to Douglas. I could never shake off the weird feeling that someone in the show killed her.

For that, Disney, you get 5 stars.

This feeling ended up completely turning what would be a subpar Star Wars show (we have enough of those) into a real life mystery.

So, what is a Duskrunner?

The miniseries follows Mara Kessan (played by Douglas), a Jedi with a secret on board The Duskrunner.

It's pretty clear Mara Kessan is running from someone, but we don't know who. Unfortunately for her, Zorddo the Hutt has been murdered on board the ship. The thing is, Zorddo was a cutthroat space gangster, and everyone on that ship had a reason to kill him... except for Mara Kessan. The young Jedi has a perfect alibi: she was trapped in the cockpit at the time of the murder (it's a bit convoluted, but it works to set everything up), so she becomes the de facto detective on board.

Of course, the passengers don't trust each other. There's a killer on the ship, and things might get a lot uglier if Mara Kessan doesn't find the killer.

It's a classic mystery setting: an isolated place, lots of suspects, a detective with a secret. And of course, there's more than enough to keep the Star Wars fanboys happy (or completely mad, depending on what type of fan they are).

Unfortunately, for the crime genre lovers, there's not enough. The premise seems simple and cliched, some twists can be seen miles away, and the pacing is all over the place. However, Douglass gives the performance of her life (pun intended) as Mara Kessan. She's vulnerable, strong, intelligent, nuanced. Such a shame we won't get to see her again.

And for true crime lovers, this is a gold mine. For some reason, the parallels between the two deaths are uncanny. The one verifiable fact we have so far about Douglas' death is that she died from an overdose. Of course, that could always be accidental. However, isn't that what a killer would want you to think?

Warning: spoilers for Duskrunner

Episode 1

Mara Kassan runs through an unnamed space port. Someone's after her, and it's very clear she's afraid. She spots the Duskrunner, an old smuggler ship. She hides in it, but is trapped in the cargo hold. Coincidentally, the only place in the almost derelict ship that has a working security camera. Her alibi is established.

During her time in the cargo hold, Zorddo the Hutt is killed. He was one of the most dangerous criminal bosses in the galaxy, so his death comes as a big surprise. His bodyguard, Toran Velt (played by Zachary James), is the main suspect. Everyone aboard the ship thinks he killed Zorddo to escape his 'contract'. Turns out, he's more of a slave than an actual bodyguard.

Things are about to blow up when Mara Kassan manages to escape the cargo hold. Of course, everyone thinks she's the killer, but a quick view of the security footage makes it clear she was the only one who couldn't have done it.

She works with Toran Velt. He wants to catch the killer, but Mara Kassan doesn't trust him. Of course, he doesn't trust her. She doesn't act like a Jedi, why would she be hiding in that ship on the day Zorddo was killed?

To be quite honest, after the first episode I was done with Duskrunner. Everything feels tedious. The dialogue is terrible; at one point, Mara Kessan actually says, "If I can't find the killer, may the force be with us."

Like I said, I was done. But something changed that night. Some even say that Disney somehow bribed the LAPD. It's hard to believe, but it makes sense in that twisted, cold, calculating business way.

In a move of marketing genius, Disney decided to release three out of four episodes. The final one will stream tonight. At the same time tonight, the LAPD will finally reveal the results of their investigation into the Douglas case.

After that bombshell tweet from the LAPD, there was no way in hell I would stop watching Duskrunner.

Episode 2

Mara Kessan and Toran Velt make a list of all the suspects. It's a tired way for the series to show us all the characters in a montage. In true Star Wars fashion, these characters are more like placeholders than actual people.

We've got Edrik Salvo, former Imperial Stormtrooper. Nehla'ra, a Twi'lek dancer turned spy. Draaka, a Rodian bounty hunter. Lenni'Qorr, the pilot from Duros. Vexa Rynn, a shady business woman. RX-17, a protocol droid who sometimes expresses its wish to end all organic life.

Honestly, I don't care for Star Wars. It took me thirty minutes to google what these names are supposed to be. The thing is, they all have a very good reason to kill Zoddro, and no way to explain where they were during the murder.

Something similar happened to co-star Zachary James.

The theories that put James as the killer are mostly memes. The 'joke' is that he's always angry, and that somehow leads to him being a murderer. Although, to be honest, it's impossible to find a behind the scenes picture of him where he doesn't look like he's about to end someone.

But there's one thing that gave this theory an air of authenticity. On the night Douglas died, James went on an all night tweet-and-delete drunken rant about his co-star. Most of it was harmless venting (incredibly unprofessional, but hardly killer material), except for one tweet.

It has since been deleted, of course, but The Internet is known for not letting past mistakes disappear:

I'll translate for you: "Such an unprofessional little brat. She's [unintelligeble], can't remember her lines, [unintelligeble]. I wish she would just disappear." Something like that.

It was very clear to people that James hated Douglas. According to insider reports, the rising young actress was impossible to work with. Duskrunner was James' big comeback after a string of terrible TV movies and drug problems almost destroyed his career.

The Internet just loved this. Users created this convoluted story where James followed Douglas to her apartment and tried to talk to her. When she told him to go, James would've used some of his own drugs to spike her drink, which would lead to a deadly overdose.

Episode 3

Probably the worst thing to come out of the Star Wars universe in a long, long time. The mistrusting duo follows a lead into the dark engine room. They separate. While she's alone, someone attacks Mara Kessan with a blaster. We can't see anything, except for her red lightsaber. She fends off the blaster shots, but she has no idea who attacked her.

Someone on the ship knows her secret: she's a Sith. She can't trust anyone anymore. She has to get rid of the murderer before her secret is revealed.

Anyone could have seen that coming. It was practically shouted at us since the very first scene. This is the problem with modern Star Wars, it wants everything to be easy. Cue the meme.

That's Duskrunner director Sven Cairo. You've probably seen the meme. Star Wars fans turned that image into a meme (silly captions like "I called my teacher mommy" and other very NSFW ones).

Yeah, it's easy to take this image, without context, and write some funny text. What most people didn't realise at first is that this is the moment when Cairo first heard about Douglas' death. Of course, Star Wars fans knew, that's just the way they are.

In the days after the news, we all learned that Cairo and Douglas were childhood friends. They even went to film school together. Apparently, they had both worked together on a script, it was to be their first feature, it would kickstart their careers. But Douglas decided to do a commercial instead. Then another. Then another. Then, before they knew it, she had a career and Cairo had a script he couldn't use without her permission.

He lost years of his career because of her. A few short films and a very good indie sci-fi feature later, Cairo was hired by Disney to direct all the episodes of Duskrunner. He had made it, but, according to sources, their first encounter during preproduction was anything but easy. Cairo was definitely still bitter, but he tried to remain professional.

As the weeks went by, reports say that Douglas' behaviour on and off set was becoming a problem. She knew she was on her way up, she was in deals to star on another Disney + show, The Black Pearls (based on the Pirates of the Caribbean movies). Apparently, she was becoming a diva.

In her last week on the show (and in this world), she would often show up drunk from the night before. On the night she died, someone took a picture of her where she was clearly not well.

What those pictures don't show is that Cairo and Douglas had a big fight just hours before she died. She basically said she would ruin his career. She had done it once before, and they were friends back then. What could she do now?

And here's why I think Cairo did it (jokingly, of course). His anger issues have been well documented in the past. He assaulted a crew member during the filming of his feature film, but everything was settled before it got out of hand. He hated Douglas, she threatened his career (again), he has known anger issues, and they were fighting a few hours before she died. I mean, come on.

Good thing is we won't have to wait long. The LAPD will disclose the findings of their investigation into the Douglas case tonight at 8 pm ET.

Duskrunner is available on Disney +. The last episode streams tonight at 8 pm ET. All in all, the series is pretty mid. Two out of five stars, unless the final episode completely changes things around.

I will be watching both.