Solo: A Star Wars Story is all about rolling back the years to a time when Han Solo – that loveable scoundrel – was still making a name for himself within the galaxy’s criminal underworld.
And while Alden Ehrenreich’s rogue is very much the focus of Ron Howard’s Anthology flick, there’s another major Star Wars callback hidden within the film’s finale. That’s right, we’re referring to Darth Maul, the nightmarish villain who was last seen tumbling into the abyss during The Phantom Menace.
Turns out he made a surprise appearance in Solo, too, and was the sole point of contact for Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke) soon after she defeats Dryden Vos, another high-ranking gangster. But Darth Maul’s shock cameo is much more than just throwaway fan service, as author Mur Lafferty told StarWars.com.
I don’t think she would have known who he was. They sort of implied that Dryden was beholden to someone a lot more powerful than he was. And so she knew that whoever it was scared him, but she didn’t know that the guy used to be a Sith Lord. She didn’t know who he was. She just knew that that button would call Dryden Vos’ boss.
Mur’s soon-to-be-released novelization of Solo: A Star Wars Story has already given us more insight into Qi’ra’s difficult rise to power, but here, the author explains why Maul was reintroduced to the live-action Star Wars canon – spoilers: it has something to do with the character discovering a new lease of life on The Clone Wars, where he abandoned the ‘Darth’ title and sought out a new business venture with his brother.
Lafferty continued:
It’s hard to think that Vader and Maul and all these great villains we’ve known for so many years, a lot of them were behind the scenes and not known to the general public. Han Solo didn’t even believe in the Jedi, so the grand battles and stuff that are so forefront to the audience are not, necessarily, known to the random person growing up on Corellia.
The official novelization of Solo: A Star Wars Story is expected to hit store shelves on September 4th. Further down the pipeline we have the so-far unnamed Episode IX, which has J.J. Abrams behind the lens in anticipation of its arrival next Christmas.
