There’s another upcoming Star Wars TV show to look forward to, as Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord was announced at Star Wars Celebration last month. Just like in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, Sam Witwer will be voicing Palpatine’s former apprentice, but who else can we expect to see appear in the animated series? Well, Nika Futterman, who voices Asajj Ventress, made a strong case to me for why her character should show up in the spinoff.
Futterman recently reprised Ventress in Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld, which, among other things, revealed how her character came back to life following the events of the novel Dark Disciple. This appearance followed a year after Ventress’ grand return in Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and remembering that Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord is on the way, I was curious what Futterman thought of this news and how she thought a reunion between Ventress and Maul might go down since they shared some screen time in The Clone Wars. She started off saying:
Yeah, they did. I think she's a little angry with him. I mean, after all, didn't he and Savage Oppress try to kill her at one point? I think she might be a little bitter, but they are related. They are from the same place, right? They must be cousins somehow. They have the some of the same genetics, although she doesn’t have horns.
Maul and Ventress are indeed both Zabrak who hail from Dathomir, although female Dathomirian Zabraks don’t get those cranial horns. And while Ventress wasn’t biologically related to Mother Talzin, leader of the Nightsisters, like Maul and his brother, Savage Oppress, were, in a way, I suppose they could be considered figurative cousins given their unique connections to Talzin. However, as you’ll see if you revisit The Clone Wars with your Disney+ subscription, this particular “family reunion” didn’t go well.
Still, just because Asajj Ventress and Darth Maul are on bad terms shouldn’t prevent the former from appearing in the latter’s show. I’d argue that makes an even stronger case for why she should appear, although Nika Futterman has no idea if she’s being looped into Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord or not, telling me:
I don't know, and they'd have to kill me anyway if I did know, but even if I did know, I wouldn't be able to say, and they don't tell me anything either. It's all very top secret about what that down the line could be.
Set between the end of The Clone Wars, Shadow Lord will follow Maul attempting to, as described in the official synopsis, “rebuild his criminal syndicate on a planet untouched by the Empire.” He will take an apprentice under his wing, but that’s the extent of the plot details so far. Maul was originally physically portrayed by Ray Park and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz in The Phantom Menace, and the character also cameoed in Solo, with Park physically playing him again and Sam Witter resuming his vocal duties.
As for Asajj Ventress, assuming she did appear in Shadow Lord, hopefully the show takes place post-Tales of the Underworld, as that would let fans see more of her dynamic with Lyco Strata, the teenaged Jedi Padawam who started traveling with her or not. Whether that happens or not, Nika Futterman thinks there’s more than enough justification for her character to appear in the series, adding:
But I think that there's a lot of room in there to explore some kind of a relationship there because they are from the same place. And she has such a relationship with Mother Talzin, and because of his relationship with Mother Talzin, to me there's some sort of powerful story that can be created from that. Whether there will be or not, I'm not sure. I think that there just has to be because just the Dathomirians have to be explored more. There's never been a whole lot about their people.
Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord Is slated to premiere sometime in 2026. It’s likely we’ll learn about some of the other characters who will appear in the Star Wars series before the year is over, and my fingers are crossed that Asajj Ventress will be on that list.
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