Somehow Asajj Ventress has returned for Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 on Disney+ confirming what Star Wars fans long suspected.
A reoccurring villain from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Asajj Ventress was a former Nightsister and Count Dooku's Sith apprentice who progressively redeemed herself and ultimately sacrificed her life in 2015's Star Wars: The Dark Disciple.
So why is The Bad Batch bringing in Ventress and isn't she supposed to be dead?
Bad Batch Producer Explains Asajj Ventress' Disney+ Return
The biggest surprise from the Season 3 trailer of Star Wars: The Bad Batch has to be the presence of The Clone Wars villainess Asajj Ventress sporting a new outfit, a head of hair, and wielding two yellow-bladed lightsabers.
As for why the former Sith has returned for the animated show's final season, director and producer Brad Rau shared with Star Wars that they've wanted "to tell more stories about" Asajj Ventress:
“We love Asajj Ventress. She’s a character that we’ve been wanting to tell more stories about."
While the Sith-turned-bounty hunter's last on-screen appearance occurred in Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 5, her story continued in 2015's Star Wars: Dark Disciple, a novel based on an eight-episode arc that was originally planned for Season 7 of the animated show.
Rau's comments went on to confirm that Dark Disciple's events are still canon and "any new storytelling" will line up "with the events of 'Star Wars: Dark Disciple':"
“We don't want to spoil anything, but want fans to know that any new storytelling with Ventress will align with the events of Star Wars: Dark Disciple."
For reference, in Dark Disciple, Asajj is still a bounty hunter but determined to work alone before being paired with Jedi Quinlan Vos (who was referenced in Obi-Wan Kenobi) for a mission to assassinate Count Dooku.
Not only does Ventress fall in love with Vos and recognizes Light Side qualities in herself; but after he falls to the Dark Side, she redeems him but at the cost of her own life.
Asajj Ventress' Bad Batch Role & MandoVerse Connections
Due to Asajj Ventress' fan-favorite status, and the fact that Lucasfilm's plans for her character were never realized on-screen, fans suspected the studio would somehow find a way to bring her back.
The question now is how and why is she still alive.
Granted, the events of Dark Disciple and The Bad Batch occur relatively close to one another, but the book definitively precedes the series in that Count Dooku is who's responsible for Ventress' death.
If, of course, she was even dead to begin with as her Star Wars databank entry now reads, “That wasn’t the end of Asajj’s story…”
While fans will have to wait and see how Lucasfilm explains this, the fact that The Bad Batch is sticking to her Dark Disciple storyline suggests she's still a bounty hunter.
Therefore, Clone Force 99 may be looking to hire Asajj to help break Omega out of Mount Tantiss.
If so, it will be interesting to see how her Force connection and yellow lightsabers fare in The Bad Batch's post-Order 66 era.
Another intriguing possibility is that Asajj may be connected to Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau's live-action MandoVerse, especially in the wake of the Nightsisters and Dathomir's presence in Ahsoka.
The first three episodes of Season 3 of Star Wars: The Bad Batch arrives Wednesday, February 21.
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