Samuel L. Jackson stole the show in the Star Wars prequel trilogy as Jedi Master Mace Windu, and ended up being responsible for beheading Jango Fett and transforming Chancellor Palpatine into the monstrous Emperor during their clash.
That fight ended with a conflicted Anakin Skywalker cutting off Windu's arm before he was sent hurling to his apparent death (it was, after all, a very long way down).
Jackson has said on countless occasions that he'd like to return to this Galaxy Far, Far Away, and tells Empire Online (via SFFGazette.com) that, for him at least, the door is very much open to reprising the role in the not-too-distant future.
Asked by the site what he has to say about Windu's death scene, the iconic actor responded, "He's not dead!" They tried to get more from him - such as whether he'd like to star in a spin-off movie or Disney+ TV series - and, to that, Jackson simply said, "Everything, yes!"
Clearly, the prospect of playing the Jedi again massively excites him!
As unlikely as it may seem, there is hope for Jackson to return, something that's evident from Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen's respective returns to Star Wars in recent years. Talking to the site, the latter addressed his expanded role in Ahsoka, describing it as "a bucket-list item I didn’t even know I had."
The actor added, "When I was getting ready to do Obi-Wan Kenobi, I started my Clone Wars deep-dive, and I loved it. I remember thinking, ‘Man, it would be so cool to see some of that in live action.'"
"[The Clone Wars] was described to me by George Lucas when we were doing Episode III, the things that were going on in-between Episode II and III," Christensen added. "So when Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau told me they wanted to explore some of that, I was so game. And I loved how it came out."
As for what it was like to once again don Darth Vader's iconic suit, it sounds like that experience on the sets of both Ahsoka and Obi-Wan Kenobi was monumental for him.
"When we finished doing the prequels, it felt like that was it, and my journey with the character was over," he says. "So to get to come back now and do more with Anakin and Darth Vader was an amazing opportunity. The scenes that I got to do as Darth Vader on Obi-Wan, that was huge for me."
"Being able to add a little bit more connective tissue to the character and to bridge the gap into Vader a little bit more is a very worthwhile thing."
How do you think Mace Windu survived his apparent demise in Revenge of the Sith? Let us know your thoughts and theories in the comments section below.