Mace Windu May Get His Own Star Wars Spinoff, Get The Details
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The Star Wars universe is expanding at a pace that fans have never experienced before. We’ve got Star Wars Rebels on our TVs, Star Wars: The Force Awakens heading to theaters, Rian Johnson’s Episode VIII and possibly Episode IX, and a slew of standalone movies. While we know that Godzilla’s Gareth Edwards is directing one of these, and Fantastic Four’s Josh Trank is helming another, everything else we know about them is unofficial. There have been all kinds of rumors about characters getting their own movie, and now we have another one to add to the pile, Jedi Knight Mace Windu.
Yoda, Han Solo, Boba Fett, and even Obi-Wan Kenobi are all names that have all been tossed around, but Mace Windu is an interesting proposition. The character was originally in drafts of the first three movies, but was removed and George Lucas brought him back for the prequels. He also appears in The Clone Wars animated series. Between those and his substantial presence in the Expanded Universe, there’s a lot of potential background and stories to mine (though the EU is not officially canon anymore, it is still open to be used as fodder for the new installments).
While Edwards and Trank have movies in the works, there’s third standalone project looming out there without a director. But it’s possible that A.J. Edwards could fill slot. You probably don’t know him yet, but he’s worked closely under enigmatic filmmaker Terrence Malick (The Tree of Life) for years as a second unit director and editor. Hyping his directorial debut, The Better Angels, which tells the tale of a young Abraham Lincoln, he did a Reddit AMA, and addressed rumors that he might be in talks to direct a Star Wars movie.
He said, “Talking about it, not able to say a lot yet. It will focus on Mace Windu.” That’s pretty big reveal for a guy who isn’t supposed to talk about anything.
It’ll be interesting to see if there is any merit to this statement. From recent history, it seems like the more someone talks about being involved, the less involved they actually are. And if you’re in line for a job like this, one that’s going to be cloaked in secrecy from the word go, revealing something like the main focus of the story has to be a big no no.
At the same time, however, Edwards does fit the pattern of the people Lucasfilm is hiring for these films. He’s young as a director, with only one feature under his belt, but has shown that he has skills working in the independent realm with limited resources. Where he differs from Edwards and Trank, however, is that they both had high profile, major studio gigs in the works (or just opened in Edwards’ case) that showed they can also work with an expanded scope. Also, their debuts, while low-budget, involved working with special effects and at least fall in the sci-fi genre.
If they do go with a Mace Windu story, there are a number of things to consider. He dies in Revenge of the Sith, so the story will have to take place in the prequel era or before. Another question is if Samuel L. Jackson will come back, or if they’ll go with a younger version. He’s not the most interesting character, and choosing to center a movie on him seems like a strange choice. Then again, he’s also more of a blank slate than many others, and perhaps they could use his story to shed light on an important corner of the universe.
Do you think any of this is possible, or is Edwards just talking out of his ass? Are you interested in a Mace Windu centric movie?
