Iden Versio

Iden Versio debuted in Star Wars Battlefront II: Inferno Squad, a tie-in novel for the 2017 Battlefront II video game.[6] The Inferno Squad novel was written by Christie Golden and released on July 25, 2017.[6] Gavankar provided the voice for the novel's audiobook version.[7] The novel's events directly precede those of the video game.[6] In the novel, the "Inferno Squad" is an elite team of soldiers led by Commander Iden Versio.[6] In-universe, the group's formation is authorized by the Empire after the Rebellion steals the plans to the Death Star and destroys the battle station.[6] The Inferno Squad is tasked with infiltrating and eliminating "the Dreamers", who were the remainder of Saw Gerrera's extremist rebel group, the Partisans.[6][8]

In Inferno Squad, the unit is established with Iden commanding Gideon Hask, a fellow pilot who graduated top of his class at Coruscant Imperial University, Del Meeko, a TIE fighter pilot and an engineering expert, and Seyn Marana, an intelligence prodigy and master cryptologist.[7][9] Iden is also noted for holding the record for most verified kills in battle.[7] In the novel, Admiral Garrick Versio serves as the squad's supervisor.[9]

Iden Versio's first video game appearance was in Star Wars Battlefront II (2017), where she is portrayed by Janina Gavankar. She is the protagonist of the game's single-player campaign, and she is also a playable character in game's multiplayer mode.[10]

In the video game's campaign, she is established as the Commander of Inferno Squad, an Imperial Special Forces unit.[11] Gavankar also described Inferno Squad as a black ops unit.[4] Her Inferno Squad mates in the game are Gideon Hask and Del Meeko. Throughout the game, Iden Versio is accompanied by ID10, a seeker droid which she nicknames Dio.[12] TJ Ramini, Del Meeko's voice actor, notes that Iden and Del "have a bit of a banter, a bit of a laugh," throughout the game.[4]

After being freed from Rebel captivity by ID10, the player first controls Iden on Endor during the events of Return of the Jedi.[3] Iden leads Inferno Squad against the Rebellion in the Battle of Endor, during which they witness the destruction of the second Death Star.[5] Iden then meets with her father, Admiral Garrick Versio and the two receive orders from a now deceased Emperor Palpatine in the form of a hologram recording.[13] One of Palpatine's posthumous orders is for the Empire to perform Operation: Cinder, which involved devastating many Imperial planets in order to instill fear in the galaxy and emphasize the Empire's authority.[14][15] One of the planets targeted by Operation: Cinder is Iden's homeworld of Vardos.[14] Inferno Squad is sent to Vardos to retrieve Gleb, an Imperial ally, so that she is not caught in the destruction of Vardos. Iden ideologically disagrees with Operation: Cinder, as it conflicts with Iden's belief that the Empire stands for peace and order.[11] As a result of her internal conflict with Operation: Cinder, Iden disobeys Imperial commands to not rescue civilians, and she defects from the Empire. Del Meeko joins Iden, while Hask remains loyal to the Empire.[15][16] Following her defection from the Empire, the player continues to control Iden, who briefly was unaligned, but soon joins the in-universe Rebellion movement. Toward the end of the game's campaign, Iden participates in the Battle of Jakku, the final large-scale military battle of the in-universe Galactic Civil War.[13] The player controls Iden as she assists the Rebellion in defeating the Empire. During the battle, Iden engages - and bests - Hask in a dogfight and confronts her father on his ship as it is being destroyed by Rebel fire. She pleads with him to follow her to safety, but he refuses and urges her to survive. Following the Rebellion's victory, she begins a romantic relationship with her Inferno Squad partner, Del Meeko.[13] Nearly 30 years pass, and in the campaign's epilogue, it is revealed that Iden and Del have married and had a daughter.[13] The campaign ends with a cliffhanger after Hask, now aligned with the First Order kills Del.[17]

Iden returns in the Star Wars Battlefront II: Resurrection downloadable content (DLC).[16] Mitch Dyer, the co-writer of Battlefront II details that "when the Resurrection DLC begins, [...] Iden is in a time of peace. The galaxy is at peace — there is no war."[16] While the initial Battlefront II campaign features chapters in which the player controls other characters like Luke Skywalker or Lando Calrissian,[11] the Resurrection DLC focuses entirely on Iden.[16] Dyer commented that this is because "one of the key pieces of feedback [the development team] got was that people really liked playing as Iden. She's an interesting and compelling new character in the Star Wars universe, so we wanted to really focus the rest of the story on her."[16] Iden and Del's daughter is revealed to be named Zay in Resurrection.[16][18] Toward the end of the Resurrection DLC, while infiltrating Hask's First Order Star Destroyer with her daughter Zay and her partner Shriv, Iden Versio steals the plans for a First Order dreadnought.[19] Iden confronts and kills Hask but is mortally wounded in the process, and dies before she can escape the Star Destroyer, although Zay, Dio and Shriv manage to get away on a stolen TIE Fighter and send the dreadnought plans to General Leia Organa's Resistance movement. Leia then sends the trio to gather the Resistance's allies in the Outer Rim.[19]

A LEGO minifigure version of Versio is also available in the LEGO Star Wars Inferno Squad Battle Pack, which was released in early 2019.[20] An expansion to Fantasy Flight's Star Wars Legion, includes and Iden Versio miniature and cards to include her in standard play.[21]