Like many Star Wars fans, I’ve been pining for a good story set in a galaxy far, far away’s criminal underbelly for a long time now. We’ve gotten versions of this. Solo: A Star Wars Story certainly delved into the grittier corners of the Star Wars universe. Andor and Rogue One did as well. We almost got a full-fledged underworld game with Star Wars: 1313, and Ubisoft’s Star Wars: Outlaws certainly takes us into the seedier sections of the galaxy.
But we’ve had some big disappointments along the way. Not only was Star Wars: 1313 cancelled, Disney’s The Book Of Boba Fett was a huge letdown. So much potential to really get into the various criminal factions wasted.
Star Wars: Tales Of The Underworld looks like it just might scratch that itch, however. The new animated anthology series was just announced. The six-part series of shorts lands on Disney+ on May 4th (Star Wars Day) and features anti-heroes like Cad Bane and Asajj Ventress.
Cad Bane appeared most recently in The Bad Batch, though his live-action version last showed up in Season 3 of The Mandalorian, when the blue-skinned Duros bounty hunter was spotted on Tatooine. He previously appeared in The Book Of Boba Fett. The character debuted back in the Season 1 finale of the animated series The Clone Wars in 2008.
Ventress joined the Star Wars universe earlier in Genndy Tartakovsky’s 2003 animated series The Clone Wars, appearing later in the second Clone Wars series as well as The Bad Batch later in 2021. The Zabrak Nightsister was trained as a Jedi Padawan before becoming one of Count Dooku’s apprentice and assassin.
These are both great, morally complex characters with compelling stories and the trailer certainly looks terrific:
However much Disney has fumbled the Star Wars IP over the last decade, the animated stuff has mostly been quite good. I hope that trend continues with Tales Of The Underworld.
