Again: if you haven't seen Solo: A Star Wars Story, this thread will contain MAJOR SPOILERS for a cool character in the film. Turn back if you don't want to be spoiled.
So you've seen Solo, and all your questions about Han Solo's backstory have been answered (whether you wanted them answered or not). But you've now left the theater with a much bigger question...
Didn't Darth Maul get his Satan-looking ass cut in half in The Phantom Menace? What the hell is he doing in this movie?
By popular demand, and due to the overwhelming number of questions in the Solo OT regarding this plot twist, I've decided to make a separate thread about Darth Maul and his larger role in the Star Wars expanded universe.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In which Maul becomes an actual character and not a plot device
If you're confused about the appearance of Maul in this film, it's because you haven't watched Star Wars: The Clone Wars. This computer-animated TV series aired on Cartoon Network for five seasons before being cancelled by Disney when they purchased Lucasfilm. An abbreviated sixth season was released on Netflix, where you can also binge watch the previous five seasons.
Despite its childlike appearance and stylized character designs, The Clone Wars contains some of the best (and some of the darkest) storylines in all of Star Wars. Created primarily by Dave Filoni and featuring significant involvement from George Lucas, The Clone Wars is the only form of "expanded universe" media from before the Disney buyout that is still considered canon in the current Star Wars universe. As a result, elements from The Clone Wars have reappeared in a variety of books, comics, and films from the post-Disney era: most notably, Clone Wars character Saw Gerrera appears in Rogue One, portrayed by Forrest Whitaker, and of course, Maul shows up in Solo, played by his Phantom Menace actor Ray Park but voiced by his Clone Wars actor, Sam Witwer.
Following his seeming death at the hands of Obi-Wan in The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul survived through his sheer hatred and anger, channeling the power of the dark side of the Force to keep his broken and twisted body alive, in a manner similar to how Anakin survives his burning in lava. For over ten years, Maul survives on the junkyard world of Lotho Minor, where he gets his now infamous "spider legs" to walk around with, driven by his desire to one day escape and exact revenge on both Obi-Wan and Darth Sidious, who abandoned him and replaced him with his new apprentice, Count Dooku. Maul was born on the shadowy world of Dathomir, where he and his "brother," the edgy Savage Opress, were raised by a witch-like woman called Mother Talzin. During the Clone Wars, Mother Talzin attempts to use Savage to assassinate Dooku, to no success. Talzin sends Savage to Lotho Minor to recover Maul, who is given a pair of more normal-looking robot legs, and the two brothers set out to lure Obi-Wan into a trap.
Obi-Wan is captured, and gets into a fight with both Maul and Savage, but he is outnumbered and eventually rescued by his former enemy, Asajj Ventress, herself an acolyte of Dooku until he tried to have her killed. Maul and Savage don't give up, however. Obi-Wan and Jedi Master Adi Gallia are lured into another confrontation by the brothers, and Adi Gallia is killed.
At this point, Maul and Savage decide to form an army of criminals and mercenaries. They contact the Mandalorian terrorist group Death Watch, the Hutt cartel, the Pyke Syndicate (the guys running the spice mines of Kessel in Solo), and the Black Sun gang, and together they form the "Shadow Collective." They then conquer the planet Mandalore, which is run by Duchess Satine Kryze, an old flame of Obi-Wan's. Pre Vizsla, the leader of Death Watch, refuses to let an outsider run Mandalore, so Maul cuts his head off in a ritual duel to the death.
Maul then holds Satine hostage and demands that Obi-Wan come for her. Obi-Wan does, and Maul kills her in front of him. Obi-Wan refuses to give in to hate and revenge, and instead flees Mandalore. But just as things are looking up for the Maul brothers...
Palpatine decides to pay them a visit, and in a badass fight scene, proceeds to kill Savage and kick Maul's ass into next week. He decides to keep Maul alive for whatever twisted torture old Sheev can come up with, but unfortunately, the planned episodes that would have continued this storyline were among the casualties of Disney's cancellation of the show.
Thankfully, in 2014 Dark Horse Comics released a four-issue comic miniseries called Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir that adapts the unaired episodes. In this comic, Maul escapes prison with help from the Shadow Collective and Mother Talzin and goes to war against Palpatine, Dooku, and General Grievous. In the ensuing massive battle between all these villains, Grievous kills Talzin, the Shadow Collective is destroyed, and Maul goes on the run again.
The novel Ahsoka, released in 2016, provides the next piece of Maul's story. In what was supposed to be the series finale of The Clone Wars, Ahsoka, Anakin, and Obi-Wan and their clone soldiers invade Mandalore to get rid of Maul once and for all, only for Anakin and Obi-Wan to get called back to Coruscant when they learn Palpatine has been captured by Grievous. Ahsoka manages to defeat Maul and capture him...only for her clones to attack her, as Order 66 has begun. Ahsoka fakes her death and goes underground, while Maul evades justice once again...
...and apparently starts another criminal organization called Crimson Dawn, because around nine years later is when Solo takes place.
Now, what comes next? Well, after The Clone Wars was cancelled, it was replaced by another animated series from the same team called Star Wars Rebels. I won't go into detail about it here, but it does conclude Maul's story, and features his long-awaited final showdown with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine, which is one of the best lightsaber confrontations in all of Star Wars.
If you'd like to catch up on all of Maul's complete story to date, here's what you'll need:
Darth Maul (comic miniseries, 2017): This miniseries takes place before The Phantom Menace and features Maul confronting a young Jedi padawan against his master's orders.
The Phantom Menace (film, 1999): We've all seen this one. Maul gets cut in half and, seemingly, dies.
The Clone Wars: "Brothers"/"Revenge" (TV episodes, 2012): Maul returns, with the help of his brother, Savage Opress.
The Clone Wars: "Revival" (TV episode, 2012): Maul and Savage confront Obi-Wan and Adi Gallia.
The Clone Wars: "Eminence"/"Shades of Reason"/"The Lawless" (TV episodes, 2013): Maul forms the Shadow Collective, kills Satine, conquers Mandalore, and gets his ass whooped by Palpatine.
Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir (comic miniseries, 2014): Maul's Clone Wars story is concluded as he attempts, and fails, to destroy his many enemies.
Ahsoka (novel, 2016): Maul briefly appears in this novel to explain how he once again eluded justice at the end of the Clone Wars.
Solo (film, 2018): Maul makes his return to the big screen.
Rebels: "Twilight of the Apprentice, Parts 1 & 2" (TV episodes, 2016): An elderly Maul meets the cast of Rebels and is reunited with his enemy Ahsoka.
Rebels: "The Holocrons of Fate" (TV episode, 2016): Maul forces Ezra Bridger to help him assemble a pair of holocrons and discovers his hated nemesis Obi-Wan is still alive.
Rebels: "Visions and Voices" (TV episode, 2016): Maul performs an ancient ritual on Dathomir to try and uncover Obi-Wan's location.
Rebels: "Twin Suns" (TV episode, 2017): The final confrontation. Maul tracks down old Ben Kenobi on Tatooine and the duel of the fates reaches its end.
I hope this elaborate post provides you with some much-needed context after this rather surprising and bold decision by Disney. Go watch The Clone Wars and Rebels if you are a big Star Wars fan. You're missing out on some awesome stories and characters.
So you've seen Solo, and all your questions about Han Solo's backstory have been answered (whether you wanted them answered or not). But you've now left the theater with a much bigger question...
Didn't Darth Maul get his Satan-looking ass cut in half in The Phantom Menace? What the hell is he doing in this movie?
By popular demand, and due to the overwhelming number of questions in the Solo OT regarding this plot twist, I've decided to make a separate thread about Darth Maul and his larger role in the Star Wars expanded universe.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: In which Maul becomes an actual character and not a plot device
If you're confused about the appearance of Maul in this film, it's because you haven't watched Star Wars: The Clone Wars. This computer-animated TV series aired on Cartoon Network for five seasons before being cancelled by Disney when they purchased Lucasfilm. An abbreviated sixth season was released on Netflix, where you can also binge watch the previous five seasons.
Despite its childlike appearance and stylized character designs, The Clone Wars contains some of the best (and some of the darkest) storylines in all of Star Wars. Created primarily by Dave Filoni and featuring significant involvement from George Lucas, The Clone Wars is the only form of "expanded universe" media from before the Disney buyout that is still considered canon in the current Star Wars universe. As a result, elements from The Clone Wars have reappeared in a variety of books, comics, and films from the post-Disney era: most notably, Clone Wars character Saw Gerrera appears in Rogue One, portrayed by Forrest Whitaker, and of course, Maul shows up in Solo, played by his Phantom Menace actor Ray Park but voiced by his Clone Wars actor, Sam Witwer.
Following his seeming death at the hands of Obi-Wan in The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul survived through his sheer hatred and anger, channeling the power of the dark side of the Force to keep his broken and twisted body alive, in a manner similar to how Anakin survives his burning in lava. For over ten years, Maul survives on the junkyard world of Lotho Minor, where he gets his now infamous "spider legs" to walk around with, driven by his desire to one day escape and exact revenge on both Obi-Wan and Darth Sidious, who abandoned him and replaced him with his new apprentice, Count Dooku. Maul was born on the shadowy world of Dathomir, where he and his "brother," the edgy Savage Opress, were raised by a witch-like woman called Mother Talzin. During the Clone Wars, Mother Talzin attempts to use Savage to assassinate Dooku, to no success. Talzin sends Savage to Lotho Minor to recover Maul, who is given a pair of more normal-looking robot legs, and the two brothers set out to lure Obi-Wan into a trap.
Obi-Wan is captured, and gets into a fight with both Maul and Savage, but he is outnumbered and eventually rescued by his former enemy, Asajj Ventress, herself an acolyte of Dooku until he tried to have her killed. Maul and Savage don't give up, however. Obi-Wan and Jedi Master Adi Gallia are lured into another confrontation by the brothers, and Adi Gallia is killed.
At this point, Maul and Savage decide to form an army of criminals and mercenaries. They contact the Mandalorian terrorist group Death Watch, the Hutt cartel, the Pyke Syndicate (the guys running the spice mines of Kessel in Solo), and the Black Sun gang, and together they form the "Shadow Collective." They then conquer the planet Mandalore, which is run by Duchess Satine Kryze, an old flame of Obi-Wan's. Pre Vizsla, the leader of Death Watch, refuses to let an outsider run Mandalore, so Maul cuts his head off in a ritual duel to the death.
Maul then holds Satine hostage and demands that Obi-Wan come for her. Obi-Wan does, and Maul kills her in front of him. Obi-Wan refuses to give in to hate and revenge, and instead flees Mandalore. But just as things are looking up for the Maul brothers...
Palpatine decides to pay them a visit, and in a badass fight scene, proceeds to kill Savage and kick Maul's ass into next week. He decides to keep Maul alive for whatever twisted torture old Sheev can come up with, but unfortunately, the planned episodes that would have continued this storyline were among the casualties of Disney's cancellation of the show.
Thankfully, in 2014 Dark Horse Comics released a four-issue comic miniseries called Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir that adapts the unaired episodes. In this comic, Maul escapes prison with help from the Shadow Collective and Mother Talzin and goes to war against Palpatine, Dooku, and General Grievous. In the ensuing massive battle between all these villains, Grievous kills Talzin, the Shadow Collective is destroyed, and Maul goes on the run again.
The novel Ahsoka, released in 2016, provides the next piece of Maul's story. In what was supposed to be the series finale of The Clone Wars, Ahsoka, Anakin, and Obi-Wan and their clone soldiers invade Mandalore to get rid of Maul once and for all, only for Anakin and Obi-Wan to get called back to Coruscant when they learn Palpatine has been captured by Grievous. Ahsoka manages to defeat Maul and capture him...only for her clones to attack her, as Order 66 has begun. Ahsoka fakes her death and goes underground, while Maul evades justice once again...
...and apparently starts another criminal organization called Crimson Dawn, because around nine years later is when Solo takes place.
Now, what comes next? Well, after The Clone Wars was cancelled, it was replaced by another animated series from the same team called Star Wars Rebels. I won't go into detail about it here, but it does conclude Maul's story, and features his long-awaited final showdown with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Tatooine, which is one of the best lightsaber confrontations in all of Star Wars.
If you'd like to catch up on all of Maul's complete story to date, here's what you'll need:
Darth Maul (comic miniseries, 2017): This miniseries takes place before The Phantom Menace and features Maul confronting a young Jedi padawan against his master's orders.
The Phantom Menace (film, 1999): We've all seen this one. Maul gets cut in half and, seemingly, dies.
The Clone Wars: "Brothers"/"Revenge" (TV episodes, 2012): Maul returns, with the help of his brother, Savage Opress.
The Clone Wars: "Revival" (TV episode, 2012): Maul and Savage confront Obi-Wan and Adi Gallia.
The Clone Wars: "Eminence"/"Shades of Reason"/"The Lawless" (TV episodes, 2013): Maul forms the Shadow Collective, kills Satine, conquers Mandalore, and gets his ass whooped by Palpatine.
Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir (comic miniseries, 2014): Maul's Clone Wars story is concluded as he attempts, and fails, to destroy his many enemies.
Ahsoka (novel, 2016): Maul briefly appears in this novel to explain how he once again eluded justice at the end of the Clone Wars.
Solo (film, 2018): Maul makes his return to the big screen.
Rebels: "Twilight of the Apprentice, Parts 1 & 2" (TV episodes, 2016): An elderly Maul meets the cast of Rebels and is reunited with his enemy Ahsoka.
Rebels: "The Holocrons of Fate" (TV episode, 2016): Maul forces Ezra Bridger to help him assemble a pair of holocrons and discovers his hated nemesis Obi-Wan is still alive.
Rebels: "Visions and Voices" (TV episode, 2016): Maul performs an ancient ritual on Dathomir to try and uncover Obi-Wan's location.
Rebels: "Twin Suns" (TV episode, 2017): The final confrontation. Maul tracks down old Ben Kenobi on Tatooine and the duel of the fates reaches its end.
I hope this elaborate post provides you with some much-needed context after this rather surprising and bold decision by Disney. Go watch The Clone Wars and Rebels if you are a big Star Wars fan. You're missing out on some awesome stories and characters.
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