Darth Maul is back, baby! At least, that’s what Ray Park is gunning for.
The acrobatic stuntman/martial artist/actor, who played Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace and reprised the role for the surprise cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story wants to see future projects focusing on the former apprentice of Darth Sidious and now intergalactic crime boss as head of the Crimson Dawn.
Park was speaking with Forbes Magazine about his appearance in Solo and said the following about Maul’s future:
“if anything ever happens in the future and the character is back, and it’s me? I have a lot of great ideas of what I’d like to do with it.”
The interview coincides with Disney releasing some images of Park in full Darth Maul costume, giving us a much clearer look at the Crimson Dawn incarnation of the Sith Apprentice. Considering Maul in the movie was a grainy, seated hologram, these are certainly welcome and give us a more detailed glimpse at his robotic lower half (and his upgraded double lightsaber), explaining how he recovered from being chopped in half by Obi-Wan back in 1999.
Unfortunately, Park wouldn’t go into detail on precisely what his great ideas are, but let’s have a think about where Solo could be leading. Now, we know Maul’s eventual fate thanks to Rebels, so perhaps an interesting plot would be to see him slowly losing his grip on his organization as the Empire cracks down on his business. It’s a development that could theoretically see Maul coming into conflict with the Emperor, the very man he served so long ago.
Or, how about some interstellar gang warfare between the Crimson Dawn and the Hutts, with Han and Chewie stuck in the middle and having to get into debt with Jabba in order to survive, setting up his situation in A New Hope. Then again, given how Solo: A Star Wars Story famously underperformed at the box office, it’s likely that we’ll only see the Crimson Dawn plotline resolved off-screen in the comics and novels at this point.
