The inspiration for the name of Star Wars: Episode III- Revenge of the Sith's Order 66 could be historical or demonic. Featured in Episode III and more recently in Disney+’s animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Senator Palpatine ’s grim order, also known as “Clone Protocol 66”, is infamous as demanding the purge of the Jedi from the galaxy in Star Wars canon, but what significance, if any, does the number represent? While there doesn’t appear to be any official meaning behind the name Order 66, there are many fan theories that propose alternative reasons why the number 66 was chosen for the order.
When the Kaminoan scientists created the Grand Army of the Republic on the planet of Kamino, they programmed all of the clones to follow 150 contingency protocols, including Order 66. Within Revenge of the Sith, Order 66 was a secret order Palpatine, a.k.a. Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid), included within the list of protocols that proclaimed that all Jedi were traitors to the Republic and were to be executed. Very few Jedi managed to survive. In order to prevent any disloyalty from the clone troopers, Count Dooku or Darth Tyranus (Christopher Lee) posing as Sifo-Dyas, the Jedi Master who commissioned the Kaminoans to grow the clones, embedded an inhibitor chip within the clone’s brains, which prevented them from defying the protocol. While there are many theories regarding the significance of Order 66, one theory suggests that the name was inspired by Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066 from World War II.
Real history has often been regarded as the inspiration for many aspects of the Star Wars universe and the name for Order 66 is possibly correlated to a similarly cruel World War II event. Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, signed in 1942, gave the secretary of war permission to designate areas in the United States as military zones, which became concentration camps for Americans with Japanese, German, and Italian ancestry. While Roosevelt’s Order 9066 and Star Wars' Order 66 had different mandates, the two orders similarly targeted innocent people who were labeled as traitors given their affiliation to a specific group of people; given the similarities, the executive order is, therefore, likely to be the inspiration for the name.
One other theory suggests that Order 66 is indicative of the number 666, which has come to be known as a representation of evil or the devil within Christianity. 666’s association with the devil originated within the Book of Revelations from the Bible’s New Testament, which states, “Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” While Order 66 is one number short of the “number of the beast”, it still brings the concept of evil to mind for many people, since Christianity is practiced all over the world. Since the Clones were formerly allies with the Jedi, an additional theory also suggests that Order 66 actually stands for “FF” or “Friendly Fire”, since “F” is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet.
While Order 66 could be correlated either to Christianity, an event from World War II, or the Latin alphabet, what’s notable about each of these theories is the fact that they only have significance in the real-world rather than in the Star Wars universe. Within the world of Star Wars, it’s very likely that Palpatine selected the number 66 at random, specifically because the order was meant to be hidden like a needle in a haystack. If the number 66 had any significance in-universe, especially to the Sith, then it’s likely that the Jedi would have discovered it and put a stop to Palpatine’s plan before it could happen.
While the number itself appears to be random within Star Wars: Episode III- Revenge of the Sith, the sequence of the protocols is not. According to the non-canon novel Star Wars Republic Commando: True Colors by Karen Traviss, Order 65, the protocol before Order 66, actually details a contingency that is the exact opposite of Order 66, in which the clone army is authorized to detain the Chancellor (a.k.a. Palpatine) if he or she is deemed unfit to lead. Since the Star Wars universe is balanced by the dualistic nature of the light and dark side of the force, the list of contingency orders continues that theme by chronologically ordering the two protocols that could finish either the Sith or the Jedi side by side.