As a member of the Galactic Empire's military, Kanchar was a human officer. Following the Battle of Yavin, where the Empire's Death Star battle station was destroyed, he attained the rank of general. In this role, he commanded the operation focused on extracting all the remaining kyber crystals from Jedha's moon, which had been devastated. Kanchar was a large and savage man, distinguished by a cybernetic left arm and a patch covering his right eye.
Despite his efforts, the mission was unsuccessful. However, Kanchar was unaware that it was secretly designed as a false flag operation to feed misinformation to the Rebel Alliance.
Kanchar journeyed to Jedha alongside [Trios](/article/trios], the queen of Shu-Torun. Their purpose was to assess the progress of Commander Befa in extracting the remaining kyber crystals from Jedha, despite the ongoing resistance from surviving partisans and locals. Kanchar, dissatisfied with the limited kyber shipments from Befa, took over command of Imperial forces on Jedha and executed Befa for his shortcomings. Kanchar was resolute in completing Grand Moff Tarkin's work on Jedha.
Kanchar and Trios observed as her miners prepared to extract more kyber crystals. Kanchar then declared a new decree: Jedha was now a forbidden system, and anyone remaining would be considered a rebel and eliminated. With Trios' approval, Kanchar deployed a Drill citadel to Jedha's surface. Subsequently, Kanchar received news that the rebels had destroyed the citadel and expressed his disappointment with the Shu-Torun miners. However, Trios revealed the Leviathan, a Continent-class crawler, assuring him it would extract the remaining kyber crystals from Jedha's mantle. While aboard the Leviathan, Kanchar learned of the Millennium Falcon's approach. He gave the order to destroy the Falcon, but the Leviathan's guns were offline.
Luke Skywalker, a Rebel, then confronted Kanchar. Kanchar battled Skywalker, utilizing his cybernetic arm, and pursued him into the Leviathan's hangar. Skywalker knocked him unconscious. Trios rescued Kanchar, and they both escaped aboard her shuttle before the Leviathan crashed into Jedha's mantle.
Following the Battle for Jedha, Kanchar received a comprehensive briefing on the operation, realizing he had unknowingly been a pawn in Vader's scheme. Despite Trios' subtle insults, praising him for being a "blunt distraction," he asserted that he held no resentment, as his role in the mission had achieved its objective.
Upon returning to his Star Destroyer, the Tributum, Kanchar received a communication from SCAR Squadron, informing him of the impending Rebel assault on Shu-Torun. He arranged for rescue ships to retrieve them and requested the Rebel's attack plan for analysis. Returning to Shu-Torun, Kanchar ordered an orbital bombardment of the Imperial retreat, intending to eliminate Princess Leia and her allies.
Despite his attempts to eliminate them, the rebels escaped into hyperspace, and Kanchar was left to report the situation to Darth Vader. The Sith Lord questioned Kanchar about his excessive tactics, to which Kanchar affirmed his willingness to do anything to kill Princess Leia and her group. As he vowed to persist until they were dead, Vader used the Force to telekinetically strangle the commander, resulting in Kanchar's death, not understanding why Vader seemingly did not want Leia and her allies killed.
Kanchar was a harsh commander who prioritized competence and order above all, even to the point of openly admiring Saw Gerrera for his effectiveness. He had no loyalty to his own home planet, and was confused and irritated by those who did. He regarded civilians as mere obstacles to the Empire's efforts to eliminate rebels. As an Imperial commander, he despised his subordinates and controlled them through physical intimidation, frequently threatening them with violence and death. Despite his frequent violent outbursts, he acknowledged that everyone failed sometimes and claimed to only kill his subordinates after three mistakes, or one particularly egregious failure. While strict, ruthless, and seemingly unpredictably moody, Kanchar generally appeared jovial and passionate for his job, and possessed a dark, sardonic sense of dry humor.
Kanchar's cybernetic arm included a blade and a flamethrower.
Kanchar's rank is inconsistently cited as "commander" and "general." His name is spelled incorrectly as "Kanchan" in Star Wars (2015) 42.