By George & Josh Bate
Every May the 4th since the launch of Disney+, the streaming service has released a brand new Star Wars project to make fans of a galaxy far, far away have that much better of a Star Wars Day celebration. 2025 is no exception, as the new animated series Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld lands on Disney+ this May the 4th. The third iteration of the Tales of the…. series of shows, following Tales of the Jedi and Tales of the Empire, once again focuses on two characters spread across six artfully crafted shorts. This time around, attention turns to the criminal underbelly of the Star Wars universe, tracking fan favorites Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane through previously unexplored periods of their history.
The first three shorts of Tales of the Underworld follow Asajj Ventress, the former lead assassin of Count Dooku, as she attempts to lead her life in a different direction. Things go awry though when Ventress must go on the run with a young survivor of Order 66.
Much was made of Ventress’ unexpected revival in The Bad Batch Season 3. In the novel Dark Disciple by Christie Golden, which adapted an arc from The Clone Wars that was never completed, the former practitioner of the dark side met her demise and was laid to rest by her beloved Quinlan Vos. Flash forward several years and suddenly Ventress shows up on Pabu in The Bad Batch, taking Omega under her wing and interacting with Clone Force 99. The showrunners of The Bad Batch teased that we would one day find out what happened to Ventress during this gap in time, and that promise is definitely upheld in Tales of the Underworld, a series that delicately bridges the events of Dark Disciple to The Bad Batch and adds substance to Ventress’ character arc.
The three Ventress episodes tell a continuous story, unlike other Tales of… episodes about a single character that make time jumps and are more disconnected from one another. (Very little spoilers ahead)…The first episode wastes no time, plummeting audiences directly into the aftermath of Dark Disciple in depicting Quinlan Vos and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s burial of Asajj Ventress. For those who have read Dark Disciple, this beginning hits hard as it puts visuals to the culminating event of one of Star Wars’ most captivating novels. It also provides a succinct, yet effective, explanation for how Ventress lives beyond the events of the novel and eventually appears in The Bad Batch.
After an emotionally resonant beginning, the Ventress shorts transition into an engaging, albeit routine, story. After living a quiet life for some years, Ventress takes a young Order 66 survivor under her wing and protects him from Imperial forces. It’s a story that puts Ventress into a novel position as a reluctant mentor, akin to Hunter and Din Djarin in the early days of The Bad Batch and The Mandalorian respectively. While this marks new territory for Ventress, the story feels a tad tired at this point. The chemistry between Ventress and the young Jedi padawan Lyco never quite clicks the way the chemistry between Hunter and Omega or Din Djarin and Grogu did, although naturally their bond grows over the course of the three episodes.
Where the Ventress shorts excel is through their intriguing connection to a previously underdeveloped plot point from a Star Wars show. The time-period in between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope has been ripe for a variety of interesting characters, tales, and story elements (look no further than Andor Season 2 airing right now). One of these elements (introduced previously in a Star Wars project we won’t name here) provided additional depth to Order 66 survivors and offered a clever comparison to a real-life historical event. In a surprising move, Tales of the Underworld picks up on this plot element, expands on it, and makes it the driving force of the narrative in the Ventress shorts.
Looming over the Ventress shorts is a key figure from her past – Quinlan Voss. Without delving too much into spoilers, Voss plays a substantial role here, even if his screentime is limited to a few seconds at the beginning of the first short. His presence is strongly felt as he provides Ventress with her motivation in these stories.
Unfortunately, both the Order 66 element and Quinlan Vos plot threads conclude underwhelmingly without much resolution. A perplexing character decision at the end of the final Ventress short brings the overarching plot to an abrupt and unexplained halt. Upon their conclusion, the Ventress shorts seem to be best characterized as a backdoor pilot for a full-fledged Ventress series (voice actress Nika Futterman hinted at such a show in a recent interview). While we’re all for a Ventress show, using her Tales of the Underworld shorts as an introduction to another potential show, rather than being a complete and self-sufficient story, is somewhat disappointing.
The final three shorts of Tales of the Underworld pivot to notorious outlaw Cad Bane as he faces his past and confronts an old friend, who is now a Marshal on the opposite side of the law. Much like Ventress, there are gaps in Bane’s history, specifically in his upbringing prior to the events of The Clone Wars. In the same way that Tales of the Underworld sheds further light on Ventress, the new crop of shorts also adds significant layers to Cad Bane by filling in gaps in his story.
A surprise to fans like us who were particularly looking forward to the Ventress story in Tales of the Underworld, the shorts focused on Cad Bane prove to be far more compelling than the Ventress shorts and rival the Count Dooku shorts from Tales of the Jedi to be the best collection of shorts from any Tales of… series yet.
Like the Ventress shorts, the Cad Bane-focused shorts tell a single story, although, in this case, that story is told over the course of a wider time span with several years dividing each of the three shorts. Collectively, the shorts do what The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, and The Book of Boba Fett never quite accomplished – they elevate Cad Bane from simply a cool, Lee van Cleef-esque gunslinging bounty hunter to a more substantive, well-rounded, and developed character.
The shorts are essentially an origin story for Cad Bane, one that begins in his childhood living on the streets with his friend Nero. His rise to becoming a feared bounty hunter is chronicled over these shorts, but, more so, they are about Bane’s complicated relationship with Nero. After being so close in childhood, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the law in adulthood, which only begins to scratch the surface of where their relationship heads in these shorts. The storytelling here is masterful, with these shorts worthy of being combined into a theatrically released Star Wars movie.
The Cad Bane shorts also live up to the title of Tales of the Underworld, something that can’t necessarily be said for the Ventress shorts. The streets of Cad Bane’s homeworld are grimy, gritty, and lived-in. His immersion into the criminal underworld mirrors that of many in the real world, while the story itself feels more like a gangster / underworld tale than anything we’ve gotten in a Star Wars show or film to date (that includes The Book of Boba Fett). The criminal underworld comes alive in Cad Bane’s shorts to an extent seldom seen in Star Wars previously.
Like the Ventress shorts, the Cad Bane shorts leave the door open for more stories to be told. However, unlike the Ventress shorts, Cad Bane’s journey across the three shorts feels complete and not like a backdoor pilot for another show. Bane is taken into a truly unexpected directions in the show that can potentially, but do not necessarily have to, be further explored in future stories.
One can hardly review a new Star Wars animated series without commenting on the stunning animation on display. With every new animated show, the team at Lucasfilm Animation take their trademark style developed for The Clone Wars back in 2008 and makes it more refined, polished, detailed, and beautiful. The consistency in visual style for nearly 20 years solidifies that all these discrepant Star Wars stories that take place within the same galaxy far, far away, but the leaps and bounds this style has come along are nothing short of marvelous. Everything from intricate facial expressions to sprawling environments are gorgeously realized and help the writers tell stories more emotional and immersive than one could with poorer quality animation. With Star Wars animation continuing to amaze and improve year after year, there’s no telling how visually stunning future shows (like Maul: Shadow Lord) will be.
VERDICT: 8.5/10
Tales of the Underworld marks another delightful May the 4th treat for Star Wars fans to enjoy this Star Wars Day. The third iteration of the Tales of… series fills in gaps in the stories of Asajj Ventress and Cad Bane, adding substance and unexpected layers to these fan favorite characters. After an emotional beginning that ties into the novel Dark Disciple, the Ventress shorts proceed in rather routine fashion as they focus on another reluctant mentor and young apprentice. However, the Ventress stories compel with their continuation of an underdeveloped Order 66 plot device from a previous Star Wars show and the intrigue surrounding Quinlan Voss, who looms large in the series, although the shorts conclude without much resolution and feel more like a backdoor pilot for a full-fledged Ventress series than a complete story. The same can’t be said for the far more compelling and well-crafted Cad Bane shorts. Unlike the Ventress shorts, the Cad Bane episodes live up to the title of Tales of the Underworld while telling an intimate, engaging, and emotional story of two childhood friends whose relationship evolves in truly unexpected ways in adulthood. The shorts do what The Clone Wars, The Bad Batch, and The Book of Boba Fett could never quite accomplish – make Cad Bane far more than just a cool, Lee van Cleef-esque gunslinger. All six shorts of the series are beautifully realized with stunning animation that retains the visual consistency established in The Clone Wars while continuing to make remarkable improvements. With the trilogy of Tales of… series, beloved characters have evolved in deep and unexpected ways and fans have been given the opportunity to enjoy Star Wars in a different way. While the difference in quality of the Ventress and Cad Bane shorts is quite vast, Tales of the Underworld captivates, tugs at the heart strings, and has you on the edge of your seat, everything you would want from a Star Wars story.