Darth Maul made his return to the big screen forSolo: A Star Wars Storyfor the first time in nearly 20 years, and his secret scene has been released in full online, for your viewing pleasure. Earlier this week, Lucasfilm released some images of Maul with his new robotic legs, which was pretty awesome. The former Sith has appeared inThe Clone WarsandRebels, which has been seen as controversial for someStar Warsfans after he was cut in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi inThe Phantom Menaceand believed to be dead.
Lucasfilm is heavily leaning on the Maul element to promote the upcoming release ofSoloondigital outlets next week and Blu-ray on September 25th. The advertising choice is a wise one, since the Maul scene was such a huge surprise for audiences. ManyStar Warsfans were excited to learn that Maul was behind the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate, adding to speculation that the character could pop up again at some point in the franchise. However, it looks highly unlikely that there will be any sequels toSolo.
Towards the end ofSolo, Qi’ra makes a secret call to the Crimson Dawn Syndicate from Dryden Vos' study. She is seen speaking to a mysterious robed character who is revealed to beDarth Maul. In the original script, Maul wasn’t the character shown at the end of the film, according to director Ron Howard. However, the character was listed as one of the potential candidates for the “boss” role that Howard had to choose from. In the end, the director felt that the return of the former Sith Lord would be an exciting surprise for hardcoreStar Warsfans.
Ray Park came back to reprise the physical role of Maul while Sam Witwer provided the voice. The originalSoloscene with the character had to be shot twice because it wasn’t “Maul enough” by the crew. So, Ron Howard went and reshot it, adding the Lightsaber and throwing in some more intensity. The addition of Maul also solved the mystery of Qi’ra’s fighting style, which is on full display in the film. Jonathan Kasdan went deep into theStar Warsuniverse to find the style from the old video game Masters of Teras Kasi, which included Darth Maul.
Solowasn’t the box office success that Lucasfilm and Disney were expecting, but there are hopes that the home video release will bring in some extra earnings. Now that the dust has settled,Star Warsfans are going back to the spin-off and enjoying it. There’s a lot of fan service and not many big surprises, except for Maul, but the movie is getting favorable reviews now that it is out of theaters amongst certain fans who were not into it at the time of its release. You can check out the Maul scene fromSolobelow, thanks to the IGN YouTube channel.
