Shōgun actress Anna Sawai just joined the Star Wars galaxy as the bounty hunter Sevn, who may be one of the franchise's best new characters in years. Sawai has just eight credits currently to her name, including Fast & Furious 9, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and Shōgun.
The 33-year-old Japanese actress (born in New Zealand) got a particular popularity boost thanks to her starring role in the Hulu historical drama Shōgun, for which she took home the "Best Lead Actress" Emmy. As she gears up to play Yoko Ono in Sam Mendes' four-movie Beatles biopic event alongside Apple TV+'s Monarch Season 2, Sawai has found her latest venture in the galaxy far, far away.
Star Wars' anime anthology series, Visions, just returned for Season 3 on Disney+; Episode 4 of which, "The Bounty Hunter," debuts Anna Sawai as Sevn. The young credit chaser travels the galaxy with IV-A4, a medical droid she has kitted out with an assassin protocol, giving him something of a split personality.
Lucasfilm previously confirmed that Visions is mostly non-canon and, as such, Sawai is technically still to join the true galaxy far, far away. However, in the meantime, Sevn is certainly a fresh bounty hunter with an intriguing past, crazy droid companion, and strong morals, which makes for an incredible story.
From the get-go, "The Bounty Hunters" hints at Sevn's past with a mysterious green lightsaber-wielding Jedi, whom she blames for ruining her life, having seemingly started false allegations that she betrayed her old bounty hunter group.
Born on Mita, Sevn was orphaned during the galactic war and taken in by Basham, a bounty hunter group with whom she became skilled in combat. Ultimately, Sevn was believed to have betrayed Basham, going solo and building feuds with the Hutts, a Rodian gang, Tattooine smugglers, and Basham themselves.
Having escaped Basham's pursuit through the galaxy, Sawai's bounty hunter and her chaotic droid (voiced in the English dub by Ronny Chieng) land their damaged ship on Genya, where they meet Jin-Sin Cabelon (Beef actor Joseph Lee).
The Zonus Corp boss came to the pair looking for them to hunt down the Twi'lek leader of a group that attacked the resource development company's mines. Beyond offering to fix their ship and paying 150,000 credits, Jin-Sin sought Sevn to become commanding officer in Zonus' defense force.
But, from the get-go, something seemed too good to be true about Jin-Sin...
Explore The Direct's ranking of Star Wars: Visions Season 3's nine episodes.
Star Wars: Visions 'The Bounty Hunter' - Story & Spoilers Explained
Anna Sawai's Sevn and Joseph Lee's IV-A4 set out on a mission across Genya on a provided speeder bike in search of their Twi'lek target, Eno (The Acolyte actress Jodie Turner-Smith), whom they discovered in a jungle-like temple.
Sevn's suspicions about Jin-Sin were quickly confirmed, as Eno revealed that Zonus' campaign to take in war orphans was a public visad all along, as he was actually putting them to work as slaves, and her group sought to free them.
Unfortunately, IV-A4's assassin protocol and anger over Sevn's unfulfilled promises to return him to his original state sent him rogue, abandoning her on Genya.
Despite her opposition to Zonus' slavery, Sevn returned the slaves to Jin-Sin and showed her morals by confronting him about his twisted practices. Ultimately, she took the "forceful" approach, freeing the imprisoned from their shackles to take on Jin-Sin's advanced droids and freeing the slaves.
Meanwhile, a flashback finally revealed what happened between Sevn and the Jedi in the burning building, as she handed her a blaster and told her to "use [her] skills to do the right thing moving forward."
In the present day, Sawai's non-canon Star Wars newcomer still had Jin-Sin, shielded in a Droideka, to deal with. Fortunately, IV-A4 returned just in time to help her break through the powerful droid shield and defeat Jin-Sin.
Delivering one last surprise, Sevn left the slaves with a valuable artifact belonging to Jin-Sin, worth around $2.1 million credits, to help them move forward before flying away into space and once again facing Basham agents.
In terms of where their adventures go next, Sevn promised to find the Jedi who wronged her, along with finally fixing IV-A4 to remove his assassin protocol. As most of Visions' stories are one-offs, their story may never be finished, but the series recently released its first sequel, opening the doors to more.
While Lucasfilm has yet to announce Visions Volume 4, there has been no indication that this will be the Star Wars anthology's final season, which is certainly promising for fans.
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