Theory: Could Mace Windu Become The Canon Version Of Joruus C'baoth?
It’s no secret that fans, and even the actor himself, want the return of Mace Windu after his death in Revenge of the Sith. Fan-favorite Samuel L. Jackson has spoken on the return of his Star Wars character in a recent interview, saying “Put me in, coach, I'm ready! I'll learn to lightsaber left-handed, come on, hook me up.” Well, what if he didn’t need to learn to use the lightsaber with his left hand, what if he was reborn with all limbs intact at the hands of the same person that killed him?
If Mace is to return, I believe that using the story of the character Joruus C’baoth from the Heir to the Empire trilogy by Timothy Zahn would work quite well. C’baoth was a former Jedi who was recreated by the Emperor via cloning. This could offer a better explanation for Mace’s reemergence, but it also opens the opportunity for more interesting stories to be told without veering too far off the path of the continuity. Mace can still die at the hands of the Emperor and Anakin Skywalker, which cements his turn to the dark side. Fans have already been introduced to cloning, and have seen Palpatine’s lab creations such as Snoke. Who's to say that after sending Anakin to the temple he didn’t send a search party for the body of Mace Windu? Or maybe just the hand? As seen in the current Darth Vader comic books, Palpatine does hold the hand of Luke Skywalker in a jar within his lab on Exegol. If he could somehow get Luke’s hand from the Bespin fall, then he could easily track down Windu’s body or hand among the streets of Coruscant.
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In Heir to the Empire, which are now categorized as Legends, a former Jedi named Joruus C’baoth was introduced. C’baoth was a Jedi Knight who died on a project called the Outbound Flight among multiple other Jedi. He was then cloned by Emperor Palpatine and took over guardianship of his storage space hidden within Mount Tantiss on the planet Weyland. He worked with Grand Admiral Thrawn, who sought to reestablish the Empire and take down the New Republic. C’baoth only signed on to help with the promise of being handed the Skywalker siblings, Leia and Luke, with the goal of rebuilding a new, power hungry order of Force-users. It’s important to note that this clone of Joruus is not only very powerful, but he also is quite insane.
The "new" C’baoth exhibits the powers of one who uses the dark side, and it would be great to see Mace turn down this path. With his purple lightsaber and his special fighting style, there was already some speculation as to his battle with the dark side within himself. Seeing this fleshed out with a Windu clone could be intriguing. C’baoth struggles with memory before his death, which could mean Mace Windu would have to piece together who he once was with fragments of memories, which could make for a deeper, more emotional story.
Of course this all depends on how close to the novels they want to stay, but we could see an encounter between Luke Skywalker and Windu, which would prove interesting if he does remember the Skywalker name. The idea of Mace slowly remembering the name Skywalker as he tries to train Luke in his now darker ways gives me goosebumps already. There is also the possibility we could find ourselves watching Ahsoka Tano cross paths with a member of the old Jedi Council that she stood before during her time in the Order.
I could only imagine what the creatives at Lucasfilm could cook up when it comes to Mace being the C’baoth to the Canon Admiral Thrawn. While this is just a theory, it could work with the direction that Filoni and Favreau seem to be hinting at with their Mando-verse. Hints such as Mount Tantiss after the season finale of The Bad Batch and the apparent threat being set up with Thrawn in the Ahsoka show, it seems some sort of adaptation of Zahn’s Legends books is the track they are setting to bridge some of the gaps from Episode VI to the sequels.
Sure, Mace Windu could pop back up out of nowhere after hiding out on some random planet, maybe he’s taken up farming or fishing while the Rebellion fights against the Empire. That could happen, but it leaves a lot of questions about Mace and may not sit well with fans. Therefore, this is one way it could work, with an easy to understand explanation that has already been introduced.
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Source(s): Wookieepedia.com