Samuel L. Jackson Reveals He’s Asked To Resurrect A Fan-Favorite Character
Samuel L. Jackson wants to bring back one of his fan-favorite characters to live-action, and he has started to ask questions about it.
When Samuel L. Jackson says he wants to return to one of his most iconic roles, you probably have to think about it for a while. After all, the 73-year old actor has played literally dozens of characters in his long and illustrious career, and just about all of them are fan favorites. Does he want to return to the role of Pulp Fiction’s Jules Winfield to try to finally get that Academy Award? Yet another turn as John Shaft, the middle and most badass of cinematic private detectives who no one understands but his woman? Would it be his character from Snakes on a Plane, who we assume is named Francis Snakes? All good guesses, but no. Samuel L. Jackson wants to bring back Mace Windu. Here’s what the man recently said on Josh Horowitz’s Happy Sad Confused podcast:
There’s a huge history of people with one hand returning in Star Wars… The only person I’ve ever said that to, about coming back, was Bryce Dallas Howard, ’cause I just did a movie with her and she directs episodes of The Mandalorian. So, ‘You think you might be able to hook a brother up? You like me, right?’ And she’s like, ‘I love you! You’re amazing!’ So, ‘Put me back in there. Put me in, coach, I’m ready!’ I’ll learn to lightsaber left-handed, come on, hook me up.
Samuel L. Jackson revealed that he has actually been pushing for the return of the purple-bladed Jedi Master. The character has not been seen in live-action since 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, though Jackson did voice the character for the animated movie Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2008. This is also maybe the best time in years to try to slip back into a Star Wars role, since The Walt Disney Company is doing everything they currently can to expand their Star Wars offerings. The success of their streaming platform Disney+ (which is currently eating Netflix’s lunch) has pushed the company into producing more and more content to go directly there, rather than feature films. In particular, the well-received show The Mandalorian and the received Book of Boba Fett have been increasingly used to introduce characters from Star Wars lore into live-action. And after all, if we can get Boba Fett back alive, we can surely get Mace Windu (especially as this is not the first time he’s tried to get the character back).
Samuel L. Jackson first appeared as Mace Windu in 1999’s The Phantom Menace, and appeared in all three of the prequel movies. The character was portrayed as coolly intimidating and merciless in battle, though also a fair and just member of the Jedi Council. The name of the character derives from George Lucas’ earliest notes on Star Wars, though as with most of the original concepts, he was heavily changed over the many decades and drafts of scripts. He quickly became a fan favorite and was notable for wielding a unique purple-colored lightsaber, which Jackson personally requested to make himself easier to pick out in battle scenes. Given that Jackson apparently has a pretty good track record on Star Wars requests, one can’t blame him for giving it a shot with Bryce Dallas Howard.
It seems entirely likely that we may see Mace Windu, somehow alive after being thrown out a space skyscraper in Revenge of the Sith. Disney has never shied away from fan service, and given that Samuel L. Jackson is already on board and pushing for more Windu, odds are good. Of course, Jackson is an incredibly busy working actor, so there might be some scheduling needed to be done between the many, many, many projects the man has going at any given moment. Get on it, Disney.
