Maz Kanata Needs Her Own Star Wars Series on Disney+

Star Wars fans, we got us a whole lot of content coming our way. Star Wars Resistance is gearing up for a second season on Disney XD, Disney+ is launching later this year with The Mandalorian, and 2019 will close out with Episode IX in theaters. That’s not even counting the Rogue One spin-off/prequel series starring Diego Luna that’s coming to Disney+, or all the comics and novels on the way too. But as far as I’m concerned, that’s not enough Star Wars. There won’t be enough Star Wars until one character gets the spotlight: Maz Kanata.

For Lupita Nyong’o’s birthday, I want to give her the gift of… well, asking her to do more work. I want–no, I need–a Maz Kanata TV show and it needs to be part of Disney+’s plans! Forget Boba Fett, forget Obi-Wan Kenobi, forget hero of the Rebellion Wedge Antilles–the character that deserves a minimum of 22 minutes of solo screentime on our TVs every single week is a tiny old orange alien with wise words and saucy inclinations. (Also apologies to Boba, Obi-Wan, and Wedge–I still love you)

I know this seems like a random request. After all, Maz Kanata is a relatively minor (or relatively major compared to, say, a Dengar or Zuckuss) mo-cap character that got just a few scenes in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens and only one teeny scene in 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Those scenes showed off her feisty yet perceptive personality, kinda making her seem like an alien Sophia Petrillo. We may not have seen much of Maz, but we know exactly who she is. That makes her a potentially exciting protagonist–but it’s what we don’t know that’s so exciting.

Maz is a thousand years old, meaning she’s gone on thousands of adventures as a smuggler, pirate, hero, scoundrel, freedom fighter, mercenary–you name it, she’s probably done it. When did she meet Han Solo? When did she get the hots for Chewbacca? What’s her history with Justin Theroux (a.k.a. the Master Codebreaker)? Most importantly, how did she get hold of Luke Skywalker’s discarded lightsaber?! And was his hand still attached to it?! Maz Kanata is the kind of woman who takes personal calls during a firefight, refers to said firefight as a “union dispute,” and then jetpacks off like it ain’t no thang.

Maz Kanata has led a life, and that life could be fodder for a weekly, episodic adventure show the kind of which we rarely (or never) see on TV anymore. One week she could be negotiating with the Trade Federation (using blasters) on a scummy dirt world in the Prequel era, the next she could be plotting a honeytrap for a wealthy arms dealer in the wake of the second Death Star explosion. This show could go everywhere and everywhen!

Realistically, what could a Maz Kanata show look like? Would Lupita Nyong’o want to commit to playing a lead role as a mo-cap character? Live-action TV shows still shy away from completely CG leads; even Umbrella Academy’s chimp mentor Pogo didn’t appear in every episode. But maybe Disney+ has the money to make it work! And maybe doing something like six half-hour episodes would make it feasible. Or maybe Star Wars: Maz Kanata could be an animated series, one that requires Nyong’o to spend an afternoon knocking out dialogue between all her other major projects. Live-action, animated, whatever–we need way more Maz Kanata.

I know we’re getting a lot of Star Wars this year, Disney, but this is the show we need.

Where to stream Star Wars: The Force Awakens