Someone Please Put Samuel L. Jackson Back In A Star Wars Movie

Fan theories can get wild. It makes sense! They often come from a place of love. The fans are so enthralled by the material that they need to fill in some blank spots, keep the story going, or, in more annoying instances, make “corrections.” Today I was on Reddit reading someone tie themselves into knots trying to explain that the dog that peed on Freddy’s grave in A Nightmare On Elm Street 4: Dream Master was not what actually brought him back to death/life/dream master. The snag is that the director, Renny Harlin, has explained that it was the dog, for reasons.

Without the creator’s involvement, fan theories are just that: theories. They’re wild speculations about something the theorist has no real control over. Some fans feel ownership over the material they try to add to or make sense of, but that can be undone instantly with the stroke of a creator’s pen. However, sometimes the theorist is directly involved, and has the director’s approval, but can’t get anyone in the studio system to wake the f*** up and listen to him!

Samuel L. Jackson played Jedi master Mace Windu in all three Star Wars prequels. In Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of The Sith, Windu lost an arm to Anakin Skywalker, was electrocuted by Emperor Palpatine, and force-pushed out of a window high above Coruscant. Sorry for the spoiler to a movie that’s almost twenty years old, but I’m the one who just realized that this third film, released when I was in High School, came out just shy of two decades ago. I’ll need to lie down to finish the rest of this.

Mace Windu’s “death” at the hands of Anakin and the Emperor made sense at the time. There was no mention of him in the original films, subsequent novels, games, or action figures. Mace Windu was nowhere to be found. Regardless, the architect behind it all, George Lucas, had introduced fans to a new Jedi played by one of the coolest actors in the known galaxy. Fans wanted more! So does Samuel L. Jackson.

Jackson has long believed that Windu is alive and (mostly) well. He revealed in 2016 that not only does he believe Windu is alive, but he brought the idea to George Lucas, and the creator of the franchise said, “Okay.” As Jackson noted at the time, Lucas was no longer in charge of the franchise. For now, Jackson and Lucas’s shared wish to see Windu alive is, in a weird way, a fan theory. That hasn’t stopped Jackson from continuing to bang the drum!

“There’s a history alone, history of one-armed, one-handed people in the Star Wars Universe,” Jackson said on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. “So, just cause they cut my arm off and I fell out a window, doesn’t mean I’m dead. I’m a Jedi! The second-most powerful Jedi in the universe next to Yoda. So, I can float!” Sam left out the force lighting, but he’s got a point! “Yeah, he’s out there. Yeah, he’s out there walking the Earth with Jules,” he finished, tying Mace to his Pulp Fiction character.

The oddest thing about all of this is that Jackson’s character has not reappeared in Star Wars yet. Disney would sooner de-age actors or bring them back from the dead than re-hire a fan-favorite actor to play one of the raddest Jedis ever. The man wants to do it! Hell, he’s excited about it! Find a way to get him into The Mandalorian And Grogu or something, I don’t care. Just let Samuel L. Jackson be in Star Wars again!