Samuel L. Jackson Really Wants a Star Wars Return as Mace Windu

Samuel L. Jackson is getting antsy about making his return to the Star Wars Universe. 

Jackson joined the Star Wars franchise in the 1999 film Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and made appearances throughout the Prequel Trilogy as Jedi Master and High Council Member, Master Mace Windu. Windu was known to be one of (if not THE) strongest Jedi Masters when it came to raw Force power and lightsaber skills. He nearly proved it in his pivotal duel with Emperor Palpatine/Darth Sidious on Coruscant, if not for Anakin Skywalker suddenly changing sides and helping Sidious by cutting off Windu’s lightsaber hand, allowing Sidious to blast the Jedi Master out of a high-rise window. 

Is Mace Windu Dead or Alive?

“HE’S NOT DEAD!!!” Samuel L. Jackson insisted to Empire Magazine when asked what his take is the character’s current status in Star Wars canon. 

Nearly twenty years after Mace Windu’s apparent death in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, debate has never ended about whether he’s truly dead. Windu’s corpse was never shown; there was no funeral scene confirming his remains were found; while Star Wars has put out plenty of new canon confirming the whereabouts of so many PT-era characters that were left scattered or missing after Order 66, Windu is not one of them. 

More to the point: Force-sensitive warriors like Darth Maul and Darth Vader have survived incredibly catastrophic if not fatal injuries, and returned; even someone as untrained as Sabine Wren was impaled on a lightsaber and survived. Luke Skywalker survived multiple rounds of Force Lightinging blasts from an older and more experienced and powerful Palpatine – so standards of its own canon, Star Wars has already established that a Master as powerful as Mace Windu could survive a Force Lightning bolt, severed hand, and long fall – especially if he had the presence of mind to break the fall with this Force abilities. 

How To Bring Mace Windu Back

There have been a lot of fan-pitch ideas about how Mace Windu can return in Star Wars. The most popular ones seem to be: 

1. An entire limited series detailing more of Mace Windu’s life and backstory, as the “present-day” Windu fights to survive after his duel with Palpatine, and escape Order 66. 
2. Mace Windu returning as a massive surprise twist in a different Star Wars project, opening the door to a later project (TV series, movie, comic, novel, podcast) that would fill in the blanks of how Mace Windu survived and what he did before re-emerging. 

For his part, Samuel L. Jackson has one clear preference for what shoudl be included in a Mace Windu spinoff project: “EVERYTHING YES!!” 

The Star Wars Prequels are now streaming on Disney+.