In recent years, the Star Wars prequel trilogy has received an incredible amount of love, with much of it seemingly coming from fans who grew up with the films in the late ‘90s/early 2000s. Amid that craze notable actors from the films like Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen, Genevieve O’Reilly and Ahmed Best have returned to the fold. One actor, who surprisingly, hasn’t returned in any capacity (yet) is Samuel L. Jackson, who notably played Jedi Master Mace Windu in Episodes I-III. There are still plenty who would love to see Jackson reprise the role after all this time. On that note, he shared a two-word response when asked about playing Windu on a Disney+ show.
Mace Windu was introduced in 1999’s The Phantom Menace as the second-most powerful member of the Jedi Council, after Yoda. Mace apparently met his demise during the events of Revenge of the Sith, in which he was killed by Darth Sidious, who had help from Anakin Skywalker. Windu was pushed out of the dark lord’s office window and seemingly fell to his death. However, Samuel L. Jackson hasn’t given up hope over his character’s fate. He recently asserted that “HE’S NOT DEAD!!!” And when asked about possibly returning for a TV project of some sort, he simply said:
EVERYTHING YES!!
The 75-year-old actor shared the sentiments while chatting with Empire Magazine in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the prequels. I think it pretty much goes without saying that he wants to tell more stories revolving around the purple lightsaber-wielding warrior. And, to be honest, I personally wouldn’t mind seeing that happen in some form. The idea definitely isn’t crazy either, especially when you consider the state of the Disney-owned sci-fi franchise at this point in time.
There are plenty of upcoming Star Wars TV shows, which will be available to Disney+ subscribers. Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Mandalorian and Ahsoka are just some of the titles that fans have been treated to as of late. Surely, Lucasfilm could devise some kind of production – ideally a limited series – centered around Mace. Said show could take place sometime during the prequel era (and it helps that Samuel L. Jackson really doesn’t seem to have aged much.) Or, if the producers want to establish that Windu survived the fall (which could be tricky to pull off), that’s an option as well.
It’s worth noting that this is far from the first time that Samuel L. Jackson has expressed interest in returning as Mace Windu. He discussed the matter in 2019, saying that he wanted to give the character “one more run.” Anakin actor Hayden Christensen has even weighed in on the theory that Mace is alive somewhere. As he put it, if Jackson “wants it to be true, I wouldn’t want to disagree with that.”
There’s been no indication that Lucasfilm has any plans to do more with the beloved character. However, it’s likely that fans and the actor who plays Mace are going to keep holding out hope that the one-armed Jedi is still wandering the galaxy somewhere.
To see Sam Jackson’s work in the franchise, stream the Star Wars movies in order on Disney+ now.
