The post-credits scene of The Mandalorian’s season 2 finale teased an upcoming spin-off named The Book of Boba Fett centered around the titular bounty hunter. While Lucasfilm has yet to release any specific plot details about the series, the post-credits scene – in which Boba and Fennec arrive in Jabba’s palace to take out the trash – seemed to suggest it’ll be a revenge-based story about Boba settling all his old scores.
If The Book of Boba Fett does follow this storyline – and also adheres to the same adventure-of-the-week episodic format as The Mandalorian – then it’ll be the perfect vehicle to reintroduce Mace Windu into the Star Wars universe. Boba needs a showdown with Windu for the ruthless decapitation of his father in the Battle of Geonosis, and it would make a great standalone episode of his upcoming spin-off.
The last time Mace Windu was seen, his hand was cut off by Anakin, he was blasted with the Emperor’s Force lightning, and he fell through a broken window high up in the Coruscant skyline. So, it was assumed that he died. But Samuel L. Jackson has since said that he believes Windu survived the fall, and George Lucas agreed. The legendary Jedi was shown to survive even bigger falls in The Clone Wars, and in the Star Wars universe, no one’s ever really dead.
Jackson has been eager to return to a galaxy far, far away ever since Disney acquired Lucasfilm, and it’s about time the Mouse House took him up on the offer. After losing an arm and falling from Palpatine’s window on Coruscant and living through the tragedies of the Imperial era knowing that his own failure led to the rise of Darth Vader, Windu would be a bitter, older, more grizzled Jedi by the time The Book of Boba Fett caught up with him. Jackson could play the part similar to the grizzled, aging Civil War veteran he played in Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.
Given what happened to him, Windu wouldn’t be in tip-top shape. He’s missing a limb and he’d be badly scarred from the Force lightning. Presumably, having lived through years of dark times, Windu would be hiding out on the fringes of the galaxy. In The Book of Boba Fett, Boba can track him down and go on a Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now-style journey to find Windu’s hideout and attempt to assassinate him.
Some Star Wars fans are understandably skeptical about the potential revival of Mace Windu. His supposed death in Revenge of the Sith is a crucial turning point in Anakin’s arc. Choosing to save Palpatine is the moment that Anakin officially pledges his allegiance to the Sith and becomes the Emperor’s new apprentice. Bringing back Windu would negate that. But Maul’s brilliant arc in the animated series has proven that resurrecting a character whose death was key to the Skywalker saga can work if their return is nuanced and compelling enough to be worth it.
Boba’s hatred of Windu still needs to be resolved. His Clone Wars arc initially revolved around his desire to exact revenge against Windu, but this developed into a more general disdain for the Jedi Order. Boba never got to confront Windu directly, but he deserves to. A young Boba cradling his father’s decapitated head in Attack of the Clones was like the opening flashback scene in Death Rides a Horse – but while we got to see Bill Meceita avenge his family, we never got to see Boba’s blood-soaked rampage of revenge against Windu.
There’s one other major character from the movies that Boba deserves to exact revenge against: Han Solo, the one who sent him careening into the Sarlacc Pit in the first place. In theory, it would be great to see Han in The Book of Boba Fett, possibly engaging the bounty hunter in a quick-draw duel to play on the saga’s western influences. But the execution might be tricky. The producers could either bring back Alden Ehrenreich, whose younger Han wasn’t embraced by the fan base, or digitally de-age Harrison Ford, which is worrying for two reasons: Ford doesn’t care much for Star Wars and The Mandalorian’s digital de-aging of Luke was pretty dodgy. So, out of Boba’s two most famous enemies, Windu is the best bet for a guest spot in his spin-off series.
Jackson is one of the most beloved stars in the world and Windu emerged as a fan favorite in the prequels, so bringing him back into the Star Wars ensemble seems like a no-brainer. While Lucasfilm has brought back Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan due to popular demand and even chose Rosario Dawson to play Ahsoka Tano based on fan castings, they’ve ignored Jackson’s eagerness to reprise his Star Wars role. With any luck, this is just because they have big plans for Windu’s future and don’t want to give away the surprise.
Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, the Mandalorian dream team behind the satisfying returns of Luke and Ahsoka, are executive producing The Book of Boba Fett alongside Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy and director Robert Rodriguez, who helmed Boba’s own action-packed reprisal in “Chapter 14: The Tragedy,” so the series is in very safe hands in terms of its handling of legacy characters. If they brought back Windu for a very special episode, they’d undoubtedly nail it.