It’s hard to keep a secret when you’re making a movie. Countless blockbusters have had their twist ending, shocking cameo or even entire plot leaked online well ahead of release. It’s pretty common, in fact, and with most films these days, if you look hard enough, you can find all of its surprises on the web before you catch it in theaters. So, it’s impressive then that for the most part, Ron Howard and co. were able to keep a lid on Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s big cameo.
Of course, we’re talking about Darth Maul’s return. The mysterious boss of the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate was ultimately revealed to be the Sith lord who’d been presumed dead at the end of The Phantom Menace. The Emperor’s former apprentice only appeared briefly, but it clearly set up a larger role for him in the proposed sequel – which has now been called into question, but let’s not get into that.
Yes, Maul is back in action and it’s a pretty big deal, as this is the first time a Star Wars movie has followed up on a major development that happened in a different medium. As we said above, it came as a complete shock for almost everyone, too, and as co-writer Jon Kasdan shared with Variety, they went to great lengths to keep the cameo under wraps.
“It was never specifically named in the script. It just said, ‘A character too secret to ever name.’ Everyone did a great job of keeping it secret, and Ray was such a delight.”
Again, he’s only seen briefly in the movie, but one has to wonder how exactly Maul will come into play in the future. Whether it’s in a comic book or second film, it’s pretty clear that the fan favorite villain has a larger role in all this and we’re intrigued to see where he pops up again.
Whatever the studio decides to do with the character from here, the decision to bring Darth Maul back was as exciting as it was unexpected, and is yet another reason to go check out Solo: A Star Wars Story in theaters – if you haven’t done so already.