Wesell, Zam

• Appeared in:
  
  I
  II
  III
  IV
  V
  VI
  CW

• Homeworld:
  Zolan

• Species:
  Clawdite

• Gender:
  Female

• Size:
  1.68 meters

• Weapon:
  Blaster pistol, projectile rifle, explosives, kouhuns

• Vehicle:
  Koro-2 airspeeder

• Affiliation:
  Bounty Hunter

• 

From the Movies

Exotic and enigmatic, Zam Wesell kept her true visage hidden beneath a fabric veil and a screen of deadly deception. Though she often appeared as a beautiful human female, she was in truth a Clawdite changeling, with the ability to alter her appearance.

A swift assassin and tireless bounty hunter, Wesell used a variety of advanced gear and accessories in tracking her prey. Her legendary capture rate attests to her unerring marksmanship and unflagging dedication to her duty.

Wesell was tasked by Jango Fett to assassinate Padmé Amidala, the Senator of Naboo. Her first attempt, which involved an explosive tearing apart the Naboo Royal Cruiser, nearly succeeded. Seven people were killed in the blast, but it was Padmé's decoy, Cordé, who died and not the Senator.

Reporting her failure to Jango, Zam got a second chance. Fett equipped Zam with a pair of kouhuns, poisonous centipede-like creatures. She loaded the kouhuns into an ASN-21 droid, and dispatched the floating automaton to Padmé's Coruscant apartment.

The droid delivered its deadly cargo, but Zam hadn't counted on an interloping pair of Jedi protectors. Anakin Skywalker bisected the kouhuns with his lightsaber blade while Obi-Wan attempted to stop the droid by leaping onto it. The assassin droid continued as per its programming, returning to Zam even with a Jedi Knight clinging to its housing.

Surprised by this unwelcome guest, Zam leveled her sniper rifle at the droid and destroyed it, causing Obi-Wan to plummet into the skylines of Coruscant. He was picked up by Anakin, who was in hot pursuit in a borrowed airspeeder. Zam climbed into her own airspeeder, and a daring chase ensued amidst the towering skyscrapers.

Zam tried desperately to shake her pursuers, but Jedi are a tenacious lot. Anakin even jumped onto her airspeeder and attempted to cut into the cockpit with his lightsaber. Such attempts resulted in Zam losing control, and the airspeeder crashed onto a crowded thoroughfare in Coruscant's entertainment district.

The chase continued on foot. Zam ran into a nearby nightclub to hide and Obi-Wan and Anakin followed. Thinking that the Jedi had dropped their guard, Zam attempted to sneak-up to Obi-Wan and shoot him in the back. The Jedi Knight spun around in a blinding flash and quickly cut off Zam's arm.

The Jedi dragged the wounded assassin into the back alley in attempt to interrogate her. The callous Zam called the assassination attempts merely a job. Before Zam could reveal the name of her client, Jango Fett silenced her with a toxic Kamino saberdart to the neck, killing her instantly.

From the Expanded Universe

Zam's profit-driven aggressive ways didn't sit well with the natives of Zolander, whose strong religious convictions bore no tolerance to Zam's chosen profession. Labeling herself a progressive, Zam earned considerable profit by turning her shapeshifting skills to the blood trade of assassinations and bounty hunting, and funneled some of that revenue to other Clawdite radicals on her homeworld.

Zam honed her skills among the Mabari, an ancient order of Zolan warrior knights. She achieved third level mastery in Mabari martial arts before fleeing Zolan for the megalopolitan world of Denon. Amidst the immense cities of that center of commerce, Zam made a name for herself as a corporate security sergeant and later, an executive bodyguard.

Always eager for higher fees and esteem, Zam left Denon to pursue a career in bounty hunting. Though she preferred the solitude that came with that vocation, she would occasionally team up with Jango Fett, a bounty hunter she met on Oovo IV while tracking down smuggler Bendix Fust. Once, after inadvertently delivering a deadly weapon into the hands of a known terrorist, Wesell and Fett joined forces to prevent a planet-wide cataclysm. While not exactly close, the two hunters shared a mutual respect for one another. Zam even introduced Jango's son, Boba, to reading.

At the time of her death, Zam's personal arsenal consisted of a compact KYD-21 blaster pistol and a long-barelled projectile rifle. She wore a purple suit of flexible armorweave.

Behind the Scenes

In Episode II, Zam Wesell is played by Leeanna Walsman. Very early draft scripts did not identify Zam by name, but instead referred to her as a C.A.T., a type of Corporate Alliance Trooper.