After hyping up Asajj Ventress’ return in Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3, the fan-favorite Sith assassin was finally seen in Episode 9, The Harbinger. After Fennec Shand promised to be in contact with Wrecker and Hunter to tell them about M-count in the previous episode, Ventress appeared with the information they wanted to know and ran tests to see if Omega was Force-sensitive. So, with her big appearance, the character's voice actress, Nika Futterman, talked about the bounty hunter’s much-awaited comeback after her journey was stopped following Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ cancellation.
Futterman first voiced Ventress in Clone Wars in 2008. But the animated series was canceled as her character’s journey started to take a surprising turn after leaving the bad guys behind for free agency and becoming a bounty hunter. A decade after the show’s fifth season ended, Futterman is back, and she’s ready to give life to the Jedi Padawan again in The Bad Batch Season 3.
“It was really surprising and very exciting,” she said in an interview with Star Wars. “She's fun, interesting, and multi-layered. She's all these things that I wanted to continue on doing. So, of course, I was like, ‘Yeah, baby! What is next?’”
After a long wait, Ventress was finally seen in The Bad Batch Season 3 Episode 9. After delivering intel on the nature of M-count research and its connection to Omega, she hung around to test the young clone and even saved her from a huge sea creature by connecting with it through the Force. But as this was the side of the character fans hadn’t seen yet, Futterman revealed that she always had it in her, and it was just that viewers only saw her fighting power, not her mental ability.
“I thought what was really cool about this is, it shows that she's closer to the [light side of the] Force than she is, really, to the evil part of power — that there's some part of her that is really more like the good guys, that she's very capable of using her mental powers for good,” she continued.
Will fans see Asajj Ventress again after Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3?
Ventress left Clone Force 99 and Omega at the end of The Bad Batch Season 3 without explaining how she survived her apparent death in the 2015 novel Star Wars: Dark Disciple, which was based on unused scripts of The Clone Wars. However, her appearance seems to have opened the door for her return to the Star Wars universe, with executive producer/head writer Jennifer Corbett revealing her survival will be later shown in “future content.”
“We had several discussions about the book and how her story could continue,” she explained. “How she survived will be revealed in future content.”
Futterman added that the showrunners had found a way to continue Ventress’ story. As she believed Ventress could do and become anything, she hinted that fans would find out “a lot of things about a lot of things” about her.
“And I think we're going to have all kinds of fun adventures,” she teased.
How many Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 3 episodes are left?
So far, The Bad Batch Season 3 has released nine episodes, so six are left before it officially concludes. For its release dates, you can check the list below:
Episode 10 Identity Crisis and Episode 11 Point of No Return: April 3
Episode 12 Juggernaut: April 10
Episode 13 Into the Breach: April 17
Episode 14 Flash Strike: April 24
Episode 15 The Cavalry Has Arrived: May 1
As Futterman earlier revealed, The Bad Batch Season 3 is just the beginning of Ventress’ return to the galaxy far, far away. That said, fans may see more of this favorite bounty hunter in future Star Wars projects.
