New Del Rey Novel: Asajj Ventress – Featuring Quinlan Vos!

Asajj Ventress novel, featuring Quinlan Vos. Based on an unused script for The Clone Wars.

At the end of today’s SDCC panel dedicated to Del Rey’s new line of books, the company unveiled a big surprise at the last moment. Looks like Darth Maul: Son Of Dathomir isn’t the only work based off of an unused script from The Clone Wars; villainess-turned-anti-hero Asajj Ventress is getting her own novel!

 

The novel will be written by Christie Golden, who is well-known for writing Star TrekStarcraft, and Warcraft novels. Dave Filoni, the executive producer of both The Clone Wars and the forthcoming Rebels, had the following to say when he unveiled the novel:

“Ventress had become one of the most interesting characters… we had all this material, we had all these designs… This is based on scripts we had written with George Lucas… I’m super excited about this book.”

For those of you unfamiliar with The Clone Wars, stand by for a quick history lesson. Asajj Ventress was a Dathomirian warrior who served as Count Dooku’s apprentice after the death of her Jedi Master. Although she began her character arc as a typical vamp opponent to the Republic, circumstances changed once Darth Sidious told Dooku to murder her as a test of loyalty. The assasination attempt failed, but Ventress was now an enemy of the Separatists and had nowhere to go but home. There, she met up with Nightsister Mother Talzin and plotted several revenge schemes against Dooku, but her home was eventually discovered by the Separatists and was destroyed. No with no ties to her past remaining, Ventress became a Bounty Hunter, a process which allowed her to redefine her moral code, progressively returning to the Light Side. She would even cross paths with her former Jedi enemies, helping them when greater threats arose.

 

Now, it appears she is fated to paths with yet another Jedi: the eccentric Kiffar Quinlan Vos, whose reckless-yet-effective methods would end up being less subtle than Anakin Skywalker’s. Vos formerly served as Aayla Secura’s Master, though she distanced herself from him. He only appeared in a single episode of The Clone Wars, but he left an impact on the fans (not to mention that he was already a hugely popular character in previous works). He was meant to reappear in what would have been Season 6 of the show prior to its cancellation, but thanks to this, we will now see the Jedi in another canonical story.

 

Since the storyline isn’t restricted to conforming to a TV-PG format, Golden decided that she would take the story in a more mature direction than anything portrayed on the show. Given that The Clone Wars was progressively telling darker and darker stories, it would seem that this could work in the story’s favor – Ventress’s past is pretty horrific, and taking the kid gloves off to explore just how bad her life was (and still is) sounds like a perfect way to make her possible redemption all that more triumphant. Though plot details on the story are scarce at this time, we’ll keep you covered as more information on this (and the other Del Rey novels) hit the shelves.

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Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

Grant Davis (Pomojema)

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

27 thoughts on “New Del Rey Novel: Asajj Ventress – Featuring Quinlan Vos!

  • July 26, 2014 at 4:03 am
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    Oh look, she hair now.

  • July 26, 2014 at 4:05 am
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    Interesting Asajj has hair on that cover, I guess Lupita didn’t want to play her bald.

      • July 26, 2014 at 8:52 am
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        Why?

        • July 27, 2014 at 4:39 am
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          I would assume as it takes place 50 years after Episode III…

    • July 26, 2014 at 6:15 am
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      She actually had hair in a flashback, she just shaved her head bald because it’s easier to maintain – and also, because it looks menacing, presumably. I’m thinking that she stopped shaving her head because that was how it was before she became a Sith acolyte.

      • July 27, 2014 at 3:01 am
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        Don’t know if it has any significance, but her hair was brown in the flashbacks, not blond.

        And to address the idea some people still have that Lupita playing her, there is NO way she is playing her. They look nothing alike, other than they have shaved heads once in awhile. Do people really believe they would put Lupita in white face or just change the established look out of nowhere?

  • July 26, 2014 at 5:00 am
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    I don’t know I think it’s quite possible putting the book out will be a good way to explain how she survived the purge if they wanna go that route, it’s plausible that she survived and makes her self know sometime after ROTJ. As far as lupita playing her it fits, with her age maybe they slap a lil make up on her and there ya go. Just saying it could be.

  • July 26, 2014 at 5:05 am
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    I could also see Gwendoline Christie playing the part and I don’t think anyone as looked at that part for her. Everyone is assuming if Asajj is in 7 it must be lupita, perhaps it’s not…..maybe, perhaps, I dunno Christi is supposedly training with a light saber

    • July 26, 2014 at 5:51 am
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      Sure, I can totally see 6’3″ Gwendoline Christie playing tiny, old, wrinkled Ventress in Ep. 7. SMH…

    • July 27, 2014 at 3:05 am
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      As soon as Gwen was cast I said she could be Ventress. Partially just to try to get away from the (I think) ridiculous idea that Lupita could play her.

  • July 26, 2014 at 6:55 am
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    Gawd people Asajj ventress species can live 500 years… I wish this topic would come to rest!

    • July 26, 2014 at 7:03 am
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      Dathomirians?

    • July 26, 2014 at 9:18 am
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      How come none of you hilarious people are taking into account that Asajj Ventress would be really old if she lived to the events of Episode VII? She would be like 60 or 70. I bet she dies in this book.

      • July 26, 2014 at 10:25 am
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        Did you not read Greg’s comment? If she can have a 500-year lifespan, then being 60-70 would hardly be a setback for her.

        I’m not counting on her appearing in the movie (I doubt it, actually), but I’m not saying that she couldn’t appear in the era in a derivative work.

        • July 26, 2014 at 2:39 pm
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          Dude, I SEROIUSLY hope she gets at the very least a cameo, and can only hope for a spin-off movie all of her own! Besides, people are constantly saying “there’s no way that Lupita Nyong’o is playing Ventress”, but no-one’s considered Christina Chong yet – she’s certainly got the sly look in her eyes for Ventress, and if they’re now giving her hair in the new book…. We can but hope. ^_^

  • July 26, 2014 at 8:07 am
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    It doesn’t require her to be super old she would be under 100 and in dathomarains May live longer than that. There’s not a whole lot one can say to disprove it until JJ and co say one way or the other. Doesn’t mean it is gonna happen just means it could… So there don’t be an ass Greg it just means it possible

  • July 26, 2014 at 9:20 am
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    I hope the villains in the ST are new and not from the EU.

    • July 26, 2014 at 11:38 am
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      I also hope they wont use clone wars characters in the new episodes. And based on what we’ve heard so far I think thats the case.

  • July 26, 2014 at 9:55 am
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    The thins is: i was reading son of dathomir’s opening scene and couldn’t stop thinking how couñd would that be in TCW. Well let’s keep positive: at ñeast we have the stories somehow.

  • July 26, 2014 at 2:22 pm
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    Same crap novels as the EU.

  • July 26, 2014 at 2:24 pm
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    What makes you think she’d be old and withered by the time of Ep7? The only “old” members of her race seen in a canonical source so far are Mother Talzin and the Great Mother, and at no point has anyone mentioned how old they are. If Mother Talzin was 700 years old, for example, it would clearly mean that the Dathomirians have a very long lifespan and therefore those 30 years would be nothing to her. Don’t be so short-sighted.

    • July 26, 2014 at 6:07 pm
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      IDK. Maybe the fact that Yoda’s race could live up to 900-1000 yrs., and he WAS old and withered? (Ditto for Yaddle, btw).

      Being realistic is not the same as being short-sighted.

  • July 26, 2014 at 3:44 pm
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    Asajj Ventress was originally Rattataki

    • July 26, 2014 at 7:31 pm
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      That was retconned for TCW. She was born on Dathomir, and then taken to Rattatak as an infant.

      • July 27, 2014 at 12:37 am
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        Unfortunately.

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