Mace Windu is a motherfuckin’ badass of a Jedi. This is a tribute to the ‘I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger’ energy Samuel L. Jackson brings to the Jedi Master in George Lucas’ prequel trilogy, but it is also recognition of a bare fact. Mace Windu is badass.
Just this week, it was reported that Jackson said his Star Wars character is still alive and that he’d be interested in reprising the role. Fans will know that Mace was last seen being electrocuted by Palpatine’s Force Lightning and zapped off a building after being de-armed by Anakin. Fans also know we never actually see him dying and many have wondered how this enormously powerful Jedi could succumb so easily. It’s not like losing limbs stopped Anakin… surely Windu would’ve woken up from being zapped and hitched a ride on a glider?
Jackson is aware of the fan theories and seemed to nod to it when he said “there’s a huge history of people with one hand returning in Star Wars” on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, and the actor agreed with the host that Mace Windu is still out there “somewhere” albeit one-handed.
That Windu is alive wouldn’t be far-fetched since we’ve learned that Darth Maul somehow survived being cut in half and falling a long way down a weird chute thing. Boba Fett was eaten by a sarlacc – a monstrous carnivore – but simply escapes his predicament via the protection of his armour. Meanwhile, Palpatine just “somehow” returned. That Windu survived would be the least difficult return to explain, although any series or movie would have to come up with a reason for his absence in the original trilogy.
But what we really need is a prequel series, an entire show dedicated to exploring Windu’s backstory, because, by Midi-chlorian counts, is it ripe for dramatic adaptation. Here’s the gist…
Mace was a man with some anger issues who became the greatest swordsman of the entire Jedi order, with a unique style, one that incorporated Dark Side techniques. Also, he has a purple lightsaber. It’s part of movie lore but it’s neat how Jackson’s opportune wish for a purple lightsaber, vocalised while he was filming the prequels, was eventually weaved into his character’s backstory. The Sith are known for their angry red lightsabers, which represents their Dark Side affiliation, while Jedi typically have green or blue, Mace’s lightsaber was purple. (Yes, there are other colours but we’ll let the nerds sort that out in the FB comments.)
Purple, by the way, is a combination of red and blue (yeah, seriously, look it up) so it’s a tidy way of showing Mace’s mastery of the highly aggressive Vaapad lightsaber form and his unique absorption of the Dark Side.
In the prequels, this combat expertise was shown off when Windu deflected the bounty hunter Jango Fett’s blaster shots while charging him down before decapitating him. He also bested Darth Sidious (Palpatine) in a one-on-one while his fellow Jedi were all slain (although this is contentious as it can be construed that it was all part of Sidious’ devious plan to manipulate Anakin).
But in a series focused on the young Mace, we could see him struggling with the Dark Side while exploring the teachings of the Jedi Order; friction in the academy and getting to grips with Yoda. The challenge of retrieving kyber crystals, and some explanation as to why Mace ventured so close to the forbidden Dark Side and why he was allowed to do so (perhaps a love interest?).
A later season in this fantasy series of mine could skip forward and introduce a wizened and scarred Samuel L. Jackson, and that would be welcome. But as for a young Mace Windu, it would be an opportunity for Disney and Lucasfilm to have a Black protagonist for once. Quite frankly, it is odd that so many Jedi from far, far away would be so pasty white, and it is a disservice that we’ve seen Luke, Anakin, Rey, Cal Kestis, Kylo Ren, and Han Solo be central characters, and most of them have their own dramatic vehicles, but zero that have had protagonists who are non-white. John Boyega’s Finn was originally set up to be a more important character in the sequels than he turned out to be, eventually being sidelined in favour of Daisy Ridley’s (white) character. From posters featuring him with a lightsaber and how his character was emphasised in The Force Awakens, it is clear that Boyega was done dirty, and the shift in focus to Rey arguably made the entire sequel trilogy a whole lot worse. (Also, if you’re thinking of The Mandalorian as a vehicle with a PoC lead, consider Pedro Pascal’s own identification as a white person.)
In a Windu original series Disney could even cast a young unknown Black actor in the role and make a star of him. In this galaxy, right here and now, it makes absolutely no sense that one of the coolest, most badass Jedi hasn’t received his own spin-off or series treatment yet. Personally, I can’t wait to see a more nuanced Dark + Light depiction of a Jedi Master.
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