When Obi-Wan Kenobi reduce Darth Maul in half over 25 years ago, most of us thought that was it. Maul was clearly one of many coolest and most attention-grabbing Star Wars characters ever, however George Lucas selected to kill him. Nevertheless, as destiny would have it, the character has now come again time and time once more, largely attributable to Lucas’s protégé Dave Filoni, and shortly, we’re gonna get far more of him than we ever thought attainable.
Maul: Shadow Lord, a brand new animated sequence, was announced at Star Wars Celebration Japan final month and it’ll carry the previous Sith Lord again to the forefront in an enormous, large method. Talking with fellow Star Wars star Katee Sackhoff, voice of Maul Sam Witwer revealed just a few broad clues about what we will anticipate from the present, together with how Maul perceives the plan formulated by his former grasp, Darth Sidious.
“This can be a man who knew that the Empire was coming, and he was a part of that,” Witwer stated on The Sackhoff Show. “He was presupposed to be a part of the Clone Wars. He was presupposed to work together with his grasp, they usually had been going to carry in regards to the destruction of the Republic and the destruction of his hated enemy, the Jedi Order. He was raised to hate them. He skilled his entire life to destroy them. Effectively, now we’ve a present the place, OK, all of that was finished, however Maul, yeah, you killed a bunch of Jedi through the Clone Wars, however you didn’t work with Sidious. You didn’t know the entire plan. And in reality, you bought so scared about his plan that you simply tried to cease it on the final second.”
“Now the Empire’s right here, which Maul would have identified that that was his grasp’s intent,” he continues. “However now that he’s seeing it, he’s like, ‘Is that this what he had in thoughts? As a result of this isn’t what I believed it will be…’ Maul comes from a time of swords and sorcery and magic and knights and now all of that colour is being sucked out of the universe by this mechanized empire. And Maul’s like, ‘Is that this proper? Is that this the universe that we had been making an attempt to construct?’”
That’s fascinating, is it not? Seeing the grand plans of Emperor Palpatine by way of the eyes of somebody who labored with him earlier than Darth Vader. Earlier than Rely Dooku. Earlier than Grand Moff Tarkin or Grand Admiral Thrawn. Somebody who was there in the beginning and is now confused about what he thought the plan was, and what it ended up being.
However, as Witwer explains, that’s form of the purpose of Maul: Shadow Lord.
“It actually is a present about unhealthy guys versus worse guys,” he stated. “And our unhealthy guys are nonetheless unhealthy guys. This isn’t going to be a present the place you go, oh, you discover out Maul is only a actual teddy bear, man. He’s simply misunderstood… However the thought is, in reality, that regardless that he’s a foul man, is he as unhealthy as Sidious or Vader? And the reply is definitely no. From the Sith perspective, this man has flaws. And these flaws are… the humanity that seeps in at varied factors. And a few of that is humanity he didn’t have possibly early in Clone Wars. However due to issues that occurred to him, he’s rethought plenty of issues.”
Rethinking issues is a component of what’s making Maul: Shadow Lord work too. Witwer defined that, as he was working with Filoni on Clone Wars and Rebels, they’d give you concepts for Maul that they cherished, however couldn’t match within the present. Now, all these concepts are coming again.
“There have been concepts that I had again in Clone Wars that I might current to Dave, and even in Rebels,” Witwer stated. “And I additionally know issues that Dave wished to do. And Dave would go, ‘We’re going to chop this half out of the script that I’ve that I like a lot as a result of this isn’t Maul’s present.’ Or I’d say, ‘Dave, what if this occurs?’ And he goes, ‘It’s not Maul’s present. You’ll be able to’t go into that little stage of element. We’re seeing this from Ezra’s perspective or Ahsoka’s perspective.’ And each time he stated, ‘This isn’t Maul’s present,’ it by no means occurred to me that Maul may have a present. So I simply took these concepts and I’m like, nicely, I assume we’ll by no means see that. And now he’s like, nicely, it’s Maul’s present.’”
You’ll be able to watch the complete clip beneath and maintain a watch out for Maul: Shadow Lord in 2026.
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