Star Wars: The Clone Wars character Asajj Ventress was almost resurrected to have a lightsaber duel with Kylo Ren in Star Wars: Resistance. Although she has yet to make a live-action appearance, Ventress became a fan favorite character after appearing in 2008's Clone Wars movie and TV show. Ventress was a villain for most of the series, being introduced as Count Dooku's padawan, but she started redeeming herself by the end of The Clone Wars. In season 5, Ventress aids Ahsoka after she was expelled from the Jedi Order. Her redemption arc came full circle in the 2015 novel Star Wars: Dark Disciple when she sacrificed her life to save Jedi Quinlan Vos.
Ventress was one of the many reasons Star Wars: The Clone Wars became such a huge success. The animated world of Star Wars has remained active due to shows like Star Wars: Rebels and most recently, Star Wars: The Bad Batch. While those three shows are still incredibly popular today, the short-lived Star Wars: Resistance is often forgotten. The animated series was only on for two seasons and set during the sequel trilogy. Season 2 involved Kylo Ren searching for Sith artifacts, which led to the introduction of a character named Mika Grey trying to keep the objects away from the First Order. Mika was only in a few episodes of Star Wars: Resistance, but her role was almost given to a much more recognizable character.
During a recent episode of the Friends of the Force podcast (via The Direct), it was revealed that Star Wars: Resistance season 2 almost brought back Asajj Ventress to fight Kylo Ren. Star Wars: Resistance writer and producer Brandon Auman explained on the podcast that Asajj Ventress was originally going to play the role of Mika Grey. Dave Filoni pitched the idea, but he ultimately decided that re-introducing a fan favorite would distract audiences from Resistance's new characters. Auman's full comment can be read below:
We had Mika Grey who, originally, early on, was actually Asajj Ventress in the storyline. An older version of Asajj Ventress. And that was Filoni's idea. Filoni is notorious for changing his mind, and down the line, as we were progressing and the story had Asajj - I wrote the story - [Filoni] was like, 'you know what, if Asajj comes in, that's all the fans are gonna care about. They're only gonna want Asajj, Asajj, Asajj, they're not gonna care about any of the other characters.
At first I was totally heartbroken. Because I thought it was so cool what we were doing with that character, and seeing how she had survived... so I was really bummed out [...] I totally got what he was saying, it made perfect sense. From this point on, it's going to be the Asajj show. And if the episodes didn't include Asajj Ventress, the fans were gonna be upset, or at least a percentage of the fandom who were watching it, who were suddenly seeing, 'oh my gosh, it's a Clone Wars character!', and then it would kind of just derail the show, and [Filoni] was totally right.
Even though seeing Ventress return likely would have been a highlight in Star Wars: Resistance, it was probably better to leave the character out. Star Wars: Resistance wasn't nearly as well-received as The Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Bad Batch, so Filoni's worry about audiences only wanting to see Ventress likely would have become a problem. Narratively, it wouldn't have been a huge problem to bring Ventress back since her death was never covered in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, but that also could have seen some backlash from those who read the aforementioned Dark Disciple.
Asajj Ventress was supposed to be killed off on-screen before Star Wars: The Clone Wars was canceled, but the storyline wasn't included in season 7 after the animated series was revived. While her death wasn't covered in an animated series, Ventress hasn't been included in a live-action movie or TV show at all. With the popularity of the character and the wide range of projects Disney+ has in the works, a live-action appearance of Asajj Ventress shouldn't be ruled out. Those that read Dark Disciple may feel a little blind-sided if a future project decides to retcon Ventress' death; however, The Mandalorian season 2 started introducing characters from animated Star Wars shows. Reintroducing Asajj Ventress in Star Wars: Resistance may not have worked out, but Disney and Lucasfilm could find a way to bring her back in The Mandalorian since fans are already attached to characters from that series.
Source: Friends of the Force (via The Direct)
