Credit: Lucasfilm“No one’s every really gone,” Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) reminds us in Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi (2017). And he’s absolutely right. In a way, everyone in the faraway galaxy is invincible, and not because the Force wills it so, but because the franchise can choose any moment along its primary 70-year timeline to tell a story. As such, it’s possible that the upcoming Ahsoka (2023) series will bring a certain character back from the dead.
And no, we aren’t talking about Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn, who were previously “killed off” in animated show Star Wars: Rebels (2014) but will be getting their live-action debut in the Ahsoka series.
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We’re actually referring to the disgraced Sith Lord formerly known as Darth Maul, now simply known as Maul — at least at the time the Ahsoka series takes place, which is five years after Star Wars: Episode VI — The Return of the Jedi (1983). In fact, the series takes place a long time after Maul was killed, some 14 years to be precise.
Maul (Ray Park) is the main antagonist in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999), and though he’s seemingly killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) at the end of that film, he returns in animated show Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008). Maul (Sam Witwer) disappears in the finale, only to return 14 years later in Star Wars: Rebels.
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And it’s in Rebels where Maul (Sam Witwer) finally meets his maker, in the Season 3 episode “Twin Suns”. After tracking down Obi-Wan Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) on Tatooine, Maul falls by the Jedi’s blade, and is officially killed. However, the last time we saw Maul on the screen was actually in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), which takes place a few years before Rebels.
We see Maul (Ray Park) at the end of the film, in which it’s revealed that he’s running crime syndicate Crimson Dawn. Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like we’ll get a follow-up to Solo, but that doesn’t mean we won’t see Maul return in some capacity in the Ahsoka series. And while there have been rumors of a live-action Maul series, nothing concrete has been confirmed.
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However, seeing as the Ahsoka series is a live-action sequel to Rebels, and has already confirmed the return/live-action debuts of characters such as Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), it’s possible that Maul will also be returning to the fold in some capacity.
While Maul is absolutely dead at the time of the Ahsoka series, we were already fooled once by The Phantom Menace. It’s unlikely he survived Obi Wan’s lightsaber to the gut in Rebels, of course (even if the Jedi did cut him in half once), so it’s more than likely that if Maul does appear in Ahsoka, it will be through a flashback — something the live-action Star Wars shows have been no strangers to so far.
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Fans are already expecting to see younger versions of Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) show up in the Ahsoka series, as it was reported last year that a number of different actresses had been cast to play the character alongside Rosario Dawson.
There’s also a lot of speculation that Ahsoka will feature time travel, as previously seen in the Rebels Season 4 episode “A World Between Worlds”. If this turns out to be the case, then the series could end up bringing Maul back in an entirely unexpected way…
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Ahsoka stars Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka Tano), Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine Wren), Eman Esfandi (Ezra Bridger), Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader), and Ivanna Sakhno, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Ray Stevenson in undisclosed roles, although it has now been reported that Winstead is expected to play Hera Syndulla. It is unknown whether or not Zeb Orrelios from Rebels will also be appearing.
Ahsoka will premiere on Disney+ in 2023. Other upcoming Star Wars shows include Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 (2023), The Mandalorian Season 3 (2023), and Skeleton Crew (2023).
Do you think Ahsoka will bring back Maul? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!