Listen, it’s not that I didn’t like Solo: A Star Wars Story, it’s just that most of it was a bit bland and characterless. There was one scene, however, that I did find incredibly stupid.
Of course, I’m talking about the surprise and totally unexpected resurrection of The Phantom Menace‘s Darth Maul – last seen being chopped in half and tossed into a giant pit back in 1999. Apparently, George Lucas had him die in this gory manner specifically to prevent him from being resurrected in the future, but it doesn’t look like that plan has worked out very well.
Back in The Phantom Menace, Maul was physically played by actor/stuntman Ray Park, who’s also known for his appearance as Toad in Bryan Singer’s original X-Men and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz, who’s currently playing The Tick in… The Tick. Things are slightly different this time, however.
While Disney’s once again secured the services of Ray Park, it seems they opted for an alternative to Serafinowicz. They made a telling choice, too, going with Sam Witwer, who’s previously voiced the character in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.
The actor’s involvement seems to suggest that all of the events of the Clone Wars and Rebels TV shows are canon as far as the Lucasilm story group is concerned. It’d been reported that they consider the films and the TV shows to be equally valid, but save some appearances by characters like Saw Gerrera in them, few thought that they’d choose to make such a direct reference to the events of the show.
If we’re to take this as fact, though, then we can assume their explanation for Maul’s survival is that he first gained robotic spider legs, progressed to robot legs and has finally arrived at humanoid legs that function the same as the original. In the TV shows, we learn that the Sith Lord is nursing a vendetta against Darth Sidious/The Emperor for using him as a tool rather than a partner and is now a crime boss.
Frankly, I thinking officially bringing him back from the dead is extremely stupid (not to mention that it spoiled Solo‘s chances of becoming the first lightsaber-less Star Wars movie). But who knows, maybe they can indeed turn this character into a viable threat. Perhaps we can even see him popping up as an antagonist in a future Obi-Wan or Boba Fett movie?
Time will tell, but in the meantime, head on down to the comments section below and let us know what you thought of Solo: A Star Wars Story‘s shocking cameo.
