In today’s roundup of ‘things you hate to see and really hope aren’t true’, is the news that everybody’s favourite sith, Darth Maul, was meant to have scenes in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series, but they were unceremoniously cut. Please be aware that I am resisting the urge to make jokes about being cut in half. This isn’t the time for jokes. These are sad times.
What makes this an even more bitter pill to swallow, is that Darth Maul’s original actor from The Phantom Menace, Ray Park, would have been donning the red and black face paint to bring the character to life once more.
Oh you haven’t seen the trailer for Obi-Wan Kenobi yet? Check it out below and keep your eyes peeled for Easter eggs because it is absolutely heaving with them.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, multiple sources close to the show confirmed that Maul was supposed to appear, but was actively written out at some stage. These sources also say that Park was in active training to reprise Maul on screen once again. You’ll remember that he made an ever so brief appearance as the Zabrak Sith Lord during Solo: A Star Wars Story.
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Apparently, these creative re-writes that turfed out Maul allowed for the return of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader, so fans of the franchise are still getting their prequel fix. I mean, they were already getting it with Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan, but, you know what I’m saying.
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The rumour goes that Disney were unhappy with the direction the series was taking in the initial scripts. Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni were concerned that the show would end up being too similar to The Mandalorian in its themes, and encouraged the Obi-Wan writers to ‘go bigger’ with their approach. A lone wolf time protecting a child against the forces of evil. Yeah, seems to be ticking the same boxes to me. There’s even whispers that some footage of Park as Maul (or test footage, at the very least) was shot and may exist somewhere in a galaxy far, far away.
As for who else might be returning from the prequel era, I really hope Liam Neeson shows up as Kenobi’s old master Qui-Gon Jinn. Yoda did say that he would teach Obi-Wan how to talk to Qui-Gon using the force so, anything’s possible, right?