10 Things You Don't Know About Mace Windu
Mace Windu is probably one of the more popular characters of the prequel trilogy, partially due to the fact that he's portrayed by legendary actor Samuel L. Jackson. But how much do you know about Mace Windu? Here are seven things you may not have known about him.
10. An Old Name
The name Mace Windy actually appeared in the earliest Star Wars draft, a 13-page treatment from 1973 titled Journal of the Whills, Part 1. The name would later turn into Windy Marstrap, Leia's brother in the rough draft and later Luke's friend in the third draft. In Legends and canon, Luke has a friend on Tatooine called Windy. He appears briefly in the Tosche Station deleted scenes.
9. Concept Art Recycled
Before Samuel L. Jackson was cast in the role of Mace Windu, concept art for the character was closer to the appearance of Halais Jedi Doctor Rig Nema. Another instance of the franchise not throwing away any ideas.
8. Blue Lightsaber In Earlier Materials
Lots of people know that Samuel L. Jackson requested that his character's lightsaber be purple. But did you know that materials prior to Attack of the Clones depicted Mace Windu with a blue lightsaber? Comics and action figures showed him with one. This would later be explained by the Concordance of Fealty, a practice of Jedi entrusting each other with their lightsabers. Apparently, the blue lightsaber is Eeth Koth's lightsaber.
7. Different Masters In Legends And Canon
In Legends, Windu's master is a Neti named T'ra Saa. She actually lives long enough to take part in the Legacy - War comics set a century and a half after the Clone Wars. In canon, Windu's master (featured in a flashback within the Jedi of the Republic - Mace Windu comic miniseries) is a Mirialan named Cyslin Myr.
6. Depa Billaba's Master
In both Legends and canon, Depa Billaba is Mace Windu's apprentice. Legends explores this much more deeply with the Clone Wars novel Shatterpoint, in which Windu goes after his former apprentice on his homeworld Haruun Kal after she has gone mad from war. This dark novel has a tragic fate for Billaba resulting in her being in a coma. In canon, the Kanan comics show her in a coma (much later in the war) as a result of a fight with Grievous on Haruun Kal. When reading and watching canonical materials, it's easy to forget that Billaba is Windu's former apprentice. It may take a while for one to realize that there is a bit of a lineage that goes from Cyslin Mir to Mace Windu, to Depa Billaba, to Caleb Dume, and then to Ezra Bridger. In a way, some of Windu's teachings may live on through Bridger, albeit diluted.
5. More Apprentices In Legends
Apart from Depa Billaba, Mace Windu has had four other known apprentices in Legends: a human female named Devan For'deschel, a human male named Echuu Shen-Jon, a human male named Darrus Jeht (though this was informal), and an unidentified human male who failed as an apprentice (and may not even be within the Legends continuity since he only appeared in Star Wars Tales).
4. Smiles In Legends
The aforementioned novel Shatterpoint, set in 22 BBY, says that Mace Windu has not smiled in a decade. However, the novel Outbound Flight and the comic Zam Wesell, both set in 27 BBY, both have Mace Windu smiling. Plus, the Clone Wars microseries depicts him smiling on Dantooine two months before Shatterpoint is set. So there's a bit of an inconsistency.
3. Reflecting On Geonosis
Also in Shatterpoint, Windu regrets not killing Count Dooku when entering the arena. At the time, he could not bring himself to do it, because he still recognized him as a friend. People know him as the guy who killed Jango Fett, which Windu seems uncomfortable (and perhaps regretful) reflecting upon.
2. Suggested That Count Dooku Be Assassinated
In the novel Dark Disciple, based on scripts for unaired episodes of The Clone Wars, Mace Windu is the one who suggests that the Jedi try assassinating Count Dooku. This sets in motion the events in which Quinlan Vos goes undercover and trains under Asajj Ventress to team up with her in trying to kill Dooku.
1. He's Dead
This may be an obvious one, but you'd be surprised how many people refuse to accept that Mace Windu is dead. Some even speculated that he survived and became Snoke...for some reason. However, Mace Windu is dead, and we hear his Force ghost voice in The Rise of Skywalker. I know some people like to point out the situations with Maul and Sidious, but come on. Mace Windu is dead. He cut his hand cut off, got lightning to the face, and fell out of an extremely tall building. If this ever gets retconned, then...death to creative ideas, I guess?