Much like Boba Fett, Darth Maul captured the imagination of fans upon his debut in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, but once Obi-Wan Kenobi bisected him, that was that… or so we thought. The character later returned in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Rebels, and made a live-action appearance in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and according to THR, Darth Maul was supposed to return in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series as well.
It’s no secret that the Obi-Wan Kenobi series went through some major creative changes behind the scenes, after all, it was originally developed as a movie. When Hossein Amini was attached at the writer, the story reportedly revolved around Kenobi coming out of hiding in order to protect a young Luke Skywalker and one of the villains looking to hunt him down would have been Darth Maul. However, THR acknowledges that sources are telling conflicting stories. One claims that Ray Park was attached to reprise the role of Darth Maul and was on set for pre-production and stunt training and may have even shot test footage; Another source claims that Darth Maul was never intended to return for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, but either way, he’s not part of the story that’s set to debut in May. Although Maul may be out, Luke Skywalker will remain, but the young actor who was originally selected to play the role was replaced before he shot any scenes.
When pre-production on the Obi-Wan Kenobi series was put on pause back in 2020, director Deborah Chow showed the scripts to Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau. They were concerned that the Obi-Wan story was a little too similar to The Mandalorian and urged Chow to “go bigger,” and that meant ditching Darth Maul and adding Darth Vader and the Inquisitors (sounds like a band) into the story.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Revenge of the Sith where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his greatest defeat—the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as evil Sith Lord Darth Vader. The first trailer for the limited-series was released last week and has definitely left us wanting to see more. Thankfully, we won’t have too long to wait as Obi-Wan Kenobi will debut on Disney+ on May 25, 2022, but with Darth Maul…