STAR WARS: TALES OF THE UNDERWORLD’S Nika Futterman on Bringing Asajj Ventress Back to Life

Nerdist: When you first got the role of Asajj Ventress back in the first season of Clone Wars, she was a pretty standard evil villain type. Did Dave Filoni or George Lucas ever tell you they had a long redemption arc in mind for her?

Futterman: No, they don’t work like that. You know, you get no information, and you just sort of explore it till it goes to a certain place. And honestly, I don’t think they knew exactly what the plan was. Even though Dave is very, very specific about a lot of things, he also gives you a lot of freedom to kind of explore. And so I think, as it went along, and the story went along, the writers all created it together. So I really had no idea, just like everybody else, what was going to happen with her. And then her story became even more and more multi-layered.

In these episodes, Ventress takes on a new apprentice of sorts, a young survivor of Order 66 named Lyco. But he’s not with her in The Bad Batch. Do you think there’s a potential “Ventress and Padawan” series in that relationship?

Futterman: I can’t help but think that, you know, even at the end of The Clone Wars, when she has that episode where she saves the youngster on the train, that there’s some part of her they’re exploring where she is a protector of those in need. But I really don’t know what they have planned. Because, like I said, they’re top secret, and I know as little as you do. They had already written everything [Ventress-related] for The Bad Batch, and didn’t tell me till right before it happened. So I’m hoping that we’re heading into this realm of exploring more of the side of her, which is a little bit more of a protector. But also, still a bada--.

The beginning of the episode explains how Ventress is alive after the events of the novel Dark Disciple, where she died. We even see her love interest from that book, the Jedi Quinlan Vos, in a cameo. Have they ever approached you about realizing that novel’s storyline in animated form? 

Futterman: Well, you know, if I had anything to do with it! Because it changed the whole trajectory of who she is. You know who she was before, her inability to love, because she had such a hard life. And she had been wronged by so many people. I don’t think she believed she had the ability to love. So the fact that in the novel they bring that (romance) storyline in, it changes everything for her. It changes who she is as a being, and changes who and how she does things. There’s a softness now, and it takes away that bitter edge that she once had. And so I think that when you add love into the mix, it can make that the reason for her existence, and the path she continues on.

In Tales of the Underworld, we see a version of Ventress that has seemingly let go of most of her dark side tendencies. Do you think that’s because she died and came back from the other side, or do you think Ventress would have eventually found her way to the light anyway?

Futterman: I don’t actually think it was death that took her out of it, I think it was love that took her out. It’s just another reason for her to keep on living. And also, it’s a kind of North Star for how she functions in the universe now. She can no longer be okay with what she was before.

At Star Wars Celebration this year, Lucasfilm announced a new Darth Maul animated series. Do you think there’s a good chance that Asajj and Maul clash with their red sabers again?

Futterman: I hope so. That would be killer, because, you know, he has tried to do bad things to her before. I think it could go any way, whatever their connection may be. I think it would be really interesting. And it would be another cool storyline for her. So I think anything’s possible.

Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld is now streaming on Disney+.