Credit: LucasfilmThe Star Wars universe is expanding with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Disney this May, but one fan rumor has refined the possible meaning of this streaming series. Now, director Deborah Chow weighs in and cuts short all Darth Maul cameos in Kenobi.
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Sith Lord Darth Maul (Ray Park) made his debut in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), leaving an unshakeable weight across the galaxy throughout future appearances in The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series helmed by The Mandalorian executive producer Dave Filoni.
Two decades later and the only live-action appearance of Maul in The Phantom Menace occurred in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), with Ray Park reprising his villainous role for a quick cameo opposite of Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke).
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The Hollywood Reporter claimed that Darth Maul was set to appear in Obi-Wan Kenobi, but reports suggested that Dave Filoni quickly axed the idea in favor of going bigger.
While no one knew for sure what occurred behind the doors of Lucasfilm, Kenobi director Deborah Chow finally clears the air and shuts down the Maul rumors once and for all:
“As long as I’ve been involved, we’ve never had Darth Maul in any of it. Dave [Filoni] did a beautiful job of telling that story already.”
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With speculation that Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) is set to appear alongside Obi-Wan Kenobi/Ben Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), some fans hoped for a rematch between Darth Maul and Kenobi on the dunes of Tatooine.
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Nonetheless, having Kenobi and Maul fight on Tatooine would contradict Dave Filoni’s Rebels’ conclusion of Obi-Wan Kenobi finally vanquishing Darth Maul near Luke Skywalker’s family’s moisture farm.
Chow adds that Maul failed to make the final cut of the original Kenobi movie (which turned into a six-episode series), but Hayden Christensen’s Darth Vader was here to stay:
For anybody trying to tell a story in the middle of these two trilogies, there were only certain elements that made sense in where [Obi-Wan] is.”
“With a lot of the legacy aspects, the decision to bring Vader into it was not made lightly. We’re 10 years after Revenge Of The Sith. Where is Obi-Wan’s starting place? What has been important to him in his life? Anakin and Vader are a huge and very profound part of his life. We ended up feeling that he made sense in telling this story. And Vader casts such a dark shadow in this, that to have Maul as well, it might be a little bit much.”
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While contesting rumors about Sith Lord Darth Maul (Ray Park) reportedly starring as the main antagonist of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Deborah Chow makes it clear that Darth Vader was intended as the only big bad after Lucasfilm felt that Anakin Skywalker’s story was still unfinished, not leaving any room for another Sith in this thrilling series.
More about Obi-Wan Kenobi
The story begins ten years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his most significant 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.
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“The rematch of the century” teased by Kathleen Kennedy, director Deborah Chow, and Lucasfilm will be supported by Moses Ingram (Inquisitor Reva), Joel Edgerton (Uncle Owen), Bonnie Piesse (Beru Lars), Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie.
This new Star Wars story covers the aftershocks of the fall of the Jedi Order, seeing Obi-Wan Kenobi shift into the drifter Ben Kenobi as he watches over a young Luke Skywalker on Tatooine.
The world of (Mark Hamill), (Carrie Fisher), (Harrison Ford), (James Earl Jones), Yoda (Frank Oz), Ahsoka Tano (Ashley Eckstein), (Ray Parker), (Boba Fett (/Temura Morrison), Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), Grogu (AKA “Baby Yoda”), Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff), Koska Reeves (Sasha Banks), Fennec Shand (Ming-Na Wen), and Moff Gideon’s (Giancarlo Esposito) the , the Death Star, and The Clone Wars.
Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts on Disney+ on May 27th!
Did you want Darth Maul to appear in Kenobi? Let us know in the comments below!