This Star Wars Day, Disney+ subscribers have six brand-new animated shorts from creator Dave Filoni called “Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld,” which is an all-new anthology series similar to “Tales of the Jedi” and “Tales of the Empire”.

In this series, the focus is on the criminal underbelly of the Star Wars galaxy through the experiences of two iconic villains. Former assassin and bounty hunter Asajj Ventress is given a new chance at life and must go on the run with an unexpected new ally, while outlaw Cad Bane faces his past when he confronts an old friend, now a Marshal on the opposite side of the law.

One of the advantages of this series is that it further fleshes out some lesser-known characters, who are popular among fans of “The Clone Wars” and “The Bad Batch”.  It’s very noticeable that with each passing project, the animation gets better and better, as technology improves.

These shorts come in at between ten and fifteen minutes each, which isn’t quite long enough, but since three of the shorts are interconnected, I can’t help but feel like they should have just released the three episodes together as an extended special.

The main focus of Asajj Ventress’s story is on her helping a young Jedi who is all alone and on the run from the Empire.  The first episode deals with their meeting, while the next two storylines involve an adventure on different planets while trying to find somewhere safe to live.

While the main storyline of the other three episodes is Cad Bane’s origin story, where we see a young Cad recruited when he was a street kid and years later returns home to get vengeance, only to run into his former best friend, who is now a cop.  Which, as you might expect, isn’t going to lead to anything good, from one of the best bounty hunters in the galaxy.

Overall:  “Star Wars: Tales Of The Underworld ” is a fun little animated short series, but unnecessary.   I personally enjoyed the Cad Bane episodes a little more, since the origin story at least gave a little more backstory on the character, while the Ventress story felt like something you would see in a comic book and just filler content.  

For die-hard Star Wars fans, this is going to be a must-watch on Star Wars Day, but there isn’t anything in here that is essential; it’s just further lore-building for two characters the majority of mainstream fans won’t know much about and the problem with this series of shorts is in reality, if you never saw them, it wouldn’t make much difference in the long run and don’t seem good enough to warrant rewatching, but if your a fan of either character, I’d still check them out.

Rating:  3.5 Out Of 5

“Star Wars: Tales Of The Underworld” is out on Disney+ around the world on May 4th 2025.

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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