Samuel L. Jackson Fuels Hopes Of A Mace Windu Return... Again!
Death is a relative term in Star Wars. Boba Fett only recently crawled his way out of the belly of the Sarlacc, where he fell into in 1983. Darth Maul was cut in half but re-emerged ten years later. Palpatine was dropped into the reactor shaft of the second Death Star only to return after three decades. So, why shouldn’t Mace Windu, whose hand was cut off before he was hit with Force lightning and then dropped from one of the highest buildings on Coruscant, still be alive?
Samuel L. Jackson famously lobbied George Lucas to be included in the prequel trilogy. Then, he asked for a purple lightsaber. Finally, he insisted on not going out like a punk when Sidious took over. He got all of this and still, he was not satisfied.
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Jackson recently finished his work on the spy film Argylle, directed and produced by Matthew Vaughn (who a few years ago was rumored to direct a Star Wars anthology movie). One of his co-stars on Argylle is Bryce Dallas Howard, who was responsible for directing two episodes of The Mandalorian and most recently for Chapter 5 of The Book of Boba Fett (“The Return of the Mandalorian”) and got a lot of praise for her directorial work.
Jackson took the opportunity to openly campaign for a return of Mace Windu into the Star Wars universe:
“There’s a huge history of people with one hand returning in Star Wars… The only person I’ve ever said that to about coming back was Bryce Dallas Howard, ’cause I just did a movie with her. And she directs episodes of The Mandalorian, so, ‘You think you might be able to hook a brother up? I mean you like me, right?’ She’s like, ‘I love you, you’re amazing!’ So, ‘Put me back in there… Put me in coach, I’m ready!’ You know, I’ll learn to lightsaber left-handed. Come on, hook me up.”
This of course was not the first time that Jackson expressed his belief that the Jedi Master did not perish in Revenge of the Sith. Back in 2017, at a panel during Star Wars Celebration Orlando, he said that Jedi could fall from incredible heights and still survive.
The idea that the Windu survived his fall, went into hiding after Order 66, and still roamed the galaxy is not new. The theory would pop up time and time again. Back in 2020, there were rumors that Lucasfilm was developing a show for Disney+ that would chronicle the Jedi Master’s younger years. However, this project never went beyond the conception phase, if even that.
When Grogu sent out his Force call in season 2 of The Mandalorian, Mace Windu was one of the more prominent names that fans speculated to be on the receiving end to come to pick up the Child. Even though Din Djarin and Grogu are now reunited, such an encounter could still happen in season 3.
Another possibility would be in The Book of Boba Fett itself, should the series continue. Temeura Morrison recently expressed his thoughts, that the score between the former bounty hunter and the Jedi is not settled:
“Because Boba had lost his dad at a young age, so I think he's more venomous and has a little bit of a simmering kind of violence underneath him, and a desire for revenge - especially for people like Mace Windu, and things like that - so he can take on the respect that his father had.”
In season 2 of The Clone Wars animated series, young Boba set a trap for Windu and even managed to bring down his star destroyer. Since Windu had survived these assaults on his life, Fett might still have a lust for revenge, even if he had supposedly gotten softer in his older years.
Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau have brought back many characters into Star Wars like Maul, Boba Fett, and even Darth Vader into the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series. Why shouldn’t they give Mace Windu a chance to return as well either as a wizened one-handed Jedi Master or as a crazy old wizard, as many fans imagine him? It probably would not be a big or lasting part, as Windu playing a larger role in the creation of a new Jedi Order would somewhat conflict with the events of the sequel trilogy. He could show up in an episode or two in one of the shows of the so-called Mando-verse.
Samuel L. Jackson is obviously willing to pick up the lightsaber again and someone being presumably dead has never been an obstacle for his or her return in Star Wars.
And no one has ever found the body of Mace Windu, right?
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Source(s): The Direct, Nerdist