At first glance, Darth Maul is a very unlikely candidate to be a guest character on The Mandalorian. That’s because Maul canonically died at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Rebels shortly before the events of A New Hope. In addition, by the time of The Mandalorian he’d be pretty damn old (though who knows what the average lifespan of a Dathomirian Zabrak is).
But now, Ray Park, who played the character in The Phantom Menace and Solo: A Star Wars Story may be hinting at some kind of involvement in the upcoming second season. He posted an image of the Sith logo on Instagram and captioned it with the show’s catchphrase “THIS IS THE WAY.” This isn’t the first time he’s dropped some hints about his involvement, either.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ixLaTFsyX/
So, does this mean that Maul has cheated death a second time? I hope not, because death fake-outs are one of my least favorite things in fiction (the Chewbacca ‘death’ in The Rise of Skywalker really annoyed me). If they do go down this route, then they’d better have a damn good explanation for how he survived being mortally wounded in the Tatooine desert.
In any case, if Maul shows up in season 2, my hope would be that it’s as part of a flashback. I want to learn more about the origins of Baby Yoda, specifically what he was doing for the first 50 years of his life and who was caring for him. With Solo being a financial disappointment and direct sequels unlikely, perhaps Lucasfilm could use The Mandalorian to tell some of the story they had planned for Maul and his Crimson Dawn crime syndicate. With Baby Yoda being so valuable, perhaps they had custody of him for a time?
May 4th, Star Wars Day, is just around the corner, so perhaps Park’s teasing post could be a hint that we may get some big Mandalorian season 2 news very soon. Would it be too much to expect a teaser trailer?
Published: May 1, 2020 08:57 am