By Jamie Miller
“Star Wars”— it’s not only one of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time, but one of the greatest franchises of all time. You could most likely fill 100 mansions with the mountains of cash these movies have made. That’s not even mentioning that you would need at least 1,000 more mansions for all the memorabilia! “Star Wars” isn’t just a franchise for some, it’s a way of life, an obsession.
To this end, Disney tries to regularly release new entries in the franchise to feed our addiction. Enter their newest release, “Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld.”
“Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld,” which had its first two episodes streamed on Fortnite back on May 2 and the rest on May 4 to coincide with national Star Wars Day, tells two parallel stories.
The first focuses on Asajj Ventress, the former disciple of Count Dooku, during the time of the Empire. The Republic has fallen, as have the Jedi Order, and it’s open season on all force users not part of the Empire— be they Jedi or not. Ventress is just trying to keep her head down and survive working as a security officer in a ticket booth for shuttles off a backwater world. That is, until a teenage former Jedi stumbles in, desperate to get off-world, forcing Ventress to make a choice. Does she just keep her head down and do nothing, or does she help the kid find safety?
The second tale focuses on the origin of the legendary bounty hunter Cad Bane, first seen in the TV series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars,” detailing his early life as a young homeless orphan named Colby. He’s just trying to survive with his best friend Niroas the protege of a local gang leader, before finally facing off with Niro, who has become their homeworld’s marshall, in a one on one duel with both their destinies hanging in the balance.
Nika Futterman, known for roles in the likes of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” and “The Loud House,” reprises her role as the voice of Ventress; Lane Factor, known for roles in the likes of “The Fabelmans” and “Reservation Dogs” stars as Lyco Strata, the young former Jedi who Ventress is attempting to protect a good natured if naive teenage boy. Cory Burton known for roles in the likes of “The Transformers” and “Superman: The Animated Series,” reprises his role as the voice of Cad Bane. Artt Butler known for roles in the likes of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star vs. the Forces of Evil” stars as the voice of Niro.
What to say about this series? I loved it! It was very well written and phenomenally voice acted, especially by Futterman and Burton with Butler and Factor also proving good in their roles. The Ventress story was interesting, as a story dealing with letting go of trauma and moving on, while the Bane story dealt with the consequences of refusing to do so. The Ventress story, especially, was a favorite of mine— we need more “Star Wars” stories focusing on non-Jedi. Bane’s story is also great, being like a sci-fi rendition of the western “High Noon,” adding a great aura to the whole story, which totally fits Bane’s character since it’s always screamed space cowboy.
If I had to name one complaint, it would be the length of the overall series, six 15-minute episodes, which only gives three episodes for each character’s story. Not a lot of time to really focus or let the story breathe.
Then again, this isn’t a new problem— both “Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi” and “Star Wars: Tales of the Empire” had this same problem. “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” also had short episodes, though longer at around 26 minutes, which made more sense, as they were airing on Cartoon Network. With these series airing on streaming, it makes one wonder why they are keeping things so short, since they don’t have to worry about run time.
Regardless, I’m nitpicking at this point. This was a phenomenal show— 9.5 torches out of 10, easy. I highly recommend this show.
