A Trailer and Poster for Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld Have Been Released
This Wednesday, April 2nd, Disney’s D23 Facebook Page shared the first trailer and poster for Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld. This animated miniseries drops on Disney+ on May the 4th, “Star Wars Day.” It has become an unofficial tradition for Disney+ to release an animated miniseries on this day; historically, Tales of the Jedi, Tales of the Empire, and seasons of Star Wars: Visions all arrived on May the 4th. This new set of tales delves into the shadowy criminal element of Star Wars, following Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane, who first appeared in The Clone Wars. This is in keeping with Tales of the Jedi and Tales of the Empire, each of which followed two appropriate Star Wars characters. Check out the trailer and poster for the show here:
I’m the most excited to see the Cad Bane episodes of Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld. We know quite a bit about Ventress from The Clone Wars and Dark Disciple, but I don’t know anything about Cad Bane’s personal life and past. It’s giving me flashbacks to Tales of the Jedi focusing on Ahsoka and Dooku, a character we know too much about and one who benefited much from the series’ exploration. They can certainly take this opportunity to explain why and how Asajj Ventress is alive after the events of Dark Disciple; bringing her back in The Bad Batch was controversial, and based solely on her involvement in that series, it wasn’t worth it. Showing her sort of train Omega to use the Force doesn’t justify doing away with a sacrifice made to save the man Asajj loves. So, in that sense, they could justify or redeem that creative decision in Tales of the Underworld. But I don’t have any particular expectations for Cad Bane’s episodes of the series, and that excites me more.
I think the artwork in Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld is gorgeous, of course, yet again displaying how far Lucasfilm Animation has come since 2008 – and using the same art style! The poster is really cool, and I enjoyed the trailer as well. It looks like Asajj Ventress is protecting a kid, probably a Force-sensitive one. This plotline is very trite for a Star Wars story at this point, but I’ll try to reserve judgment till I see the show. And Cad Bane appears to be dueling an old acquaintance in his scenes. The Tales of series doesn’t usually have a ton of story because you can only do so much with three episodes per character/storyline. However, I think that can be very effective for smaller stories; sometimes less really is more. It probably sounds like I’m meandering a bit, but that’s because I genuinely don’t know what to expect from Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld. This series could be great, or it could just be alright. I’m worried about Asajj becoming over-written like Ahsoka and, arguably, Bo-Katan did. I’m also concerned about her potentially being part of the Hidden Path, the organization that helps Force-sensitive children evade the Empire. I’m really only bothered by that because it would connect to Obi-Wan Kenobi, which I’d just as soon forget about. I understand connecting your content to reward the faithful audience, but with Star Wars, this just hurts good stuff by anchoring it to garbage.
But what do you think of the artwork, trailer, or anything else about Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld? Let us know in the comments, and stay tuned for a review when the show drops on Disney+!
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