Star Wars Darth Maul Sequel Quietly Explains That Solo Cameo

However you feel about the prequel trilogy as a whole, Darth Maul was undoubtedly one of the best things about it, distilling the evil of the Sith into a pure and devastating form.

The fact that he manages to kill a Jedi Master in Qui-Gon Jinn is testament enough to his skill, but his wordless approach and double-sided lightsaber really did make the character pretty iconic.

So his reappearance in Solo: A Star Wars Story was always bound to raise a few eyebrows, particularly considering that film was set more than two decades after he was cut in half in The Phantom Menace.

After being rebuilt by his mother, Mother Talzin, using the Star Wars universe's equivalent to dark magic and cybernetics, he reemerges as the true leader of the Crimson Dawn criminal organisation, of which Han Solo was a part.

He wasn't the only one though, with the film also featuring Qi'ra, played by Emilia Clarke, who leaves Han to go and meet Darth Maul on Dathomir. The lack of financial success for the movie meant we have yet to see what exactly happens after, but it turns out the finer details have already been explained elsewhere.

Darth Maul Had Big Plans

Lucas Film

Over on Reddit, one fan asked the community what happens after Qi'ra sets off to join Maul, which isn't explained during the runtime of the film itself.

As one response pointed out, the comic book line has answered that question in a fair bit of detail, "Charles Soule has some runs in the Star Wars comics line that began in 2020 that shows Crimson Dawn during the Galactic Civil War and you get the sparknotes of what happened to Qi’ra after Solo."

The comic being referred to is the Crimson Reign run, where Soule delves much more deeply into the organisation and characters. Within that, it was confirmed that Qi'ra spent a long time with Maul, where the latter explained to her everything there is to know about the Sith, including Vader and Palpatine's identity and positions.

He also trained her to fight the Sith, and he had his own plan to bring about their downfall using an artifact known as a Fermata Cage. That cage was supposed to contain the spirit of an ancient Sith Lord, which he was going to let out and use it to kill Palpatine. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to do so but it's an awesome story thread that it's a shame we didn't get to see on the big screen. What might have been!