Veers, General Maximilian

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Species:
  Human

• Gender:
  Male

• Size:
  1.93 meters

• Vehicle:
  AT-AT walker

• Affiliation:
  Empire

• 

From the Movies

The quintessential Imperial soldier, General Veers is a stern and polished military man completely loyal to the New Order. Veers commanded the ground forces attached to Lord Vader's elite Imperial Death Squadron. When Vader discovered the Alliance base on Hoth, Veers prepared an invasion army to knock out the Rebel shield generator protecting the base.

Veers' force consisted of Imperial AT-AT walkers supported by AT-STs. From his command position atop the lead walker, Veers ordered the laser barrage that vaporized the Rebel power generator, allowing Vader to land on the besieged world. Hordes of Imperial snowtroopers armed with heavy weaponry then infiltrated Echo Base with frightening speed.

From the Expanded Universe

Maximilian Veers was a loyal Imperial who excelled during his classes at the Academy, achieving an officer's commission at a young age. Veers was dismayed by the complacency and incompetence of officers senior to him, and proved his worth when he saved his lackluster commander, General Irrv, from a native insurrection on Culroon III. For that action, young Lt. Veers saw promotion to major.

When Veers married and had a son, he became what the Imperial propaganda posters lauded as the ideal Imperial citizen: a proud military man with a productive family unswervingly loyal to the Imperial cause. Tragedy struck a few years later when Veers' wife died, leaving Maximilian to raise his young son Zevulon. Not exactly a caring father, Veers was a rigid disciplinarian, who insisted his son honor his mother's memory by serving in the military.

Despite not playing the hierarchical game of politics found throughout the Imperial echelons, Veers continued to rise. As a Colonel, he was transferred to the high profile Death Star assignment. He and a handful of officers escaped the station's destruction at Yavin, having to survive on his own in the jungles of the fourth moon after his escape shuttle was shot down.

Veers eventually rejoined the Empire proper, earning the rank of General and command of the ground forces assigned to Lord Vader's Imperial Death Squadron. Although Hoth was a considerable victory for Veers, he faced personal shame when his teenage son defected to the Rebellion.

Not much is known of Veers' activities after the fall of the Empire at Endor. He surfaced again during the resurrected Emperor's campaign as a ground officer at the Battle of Balmorra.

Behind the Scenes

In the original script of The Empire Strikes Back, Veers perished when his walker was rammed by a snowspeeder. The scene never made it into the final film, and as such, Veers' life was spared. He appeared in early draft scripts of Return of the Jedi, though his character does not return in that film. Producer Robert Watts, who had a cameo appearance as an AT-ST pilot in Jedi, has once said that his character was actually General Veers, but it seems doubtful that Veers would have such a demotion to a simple pilot. His son, Zevulon, appears in the Dark Empire comics series.

Actor Julian Glover, who played Veers in The Empire Strikes Back, also played villain Walter Donovan in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.