Warning. Major Solo: A Star Wars Story spoilers follow…
Ron Howard delivered quite the surprise in the closing moments of Solo: A Star Wars Story when it was revealed that Emilia Clarke’s Qi’ra has been working for the former Sith Lord Darth Maul, now head of the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate.
The cameo – which saw Ray Park reprising his role from Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Star Wars Rebels’ Sam Witwer voicing the fan favourite villain – may have left some of the more casual fans scratching their head and wondering how he’d managed to survive his encounter with Obi-Wan Kenobi on Naboo all those years ago.
However, those who’ve kept up Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels will be all to aware that Maul has been back on his feet for many years courtesy of some magic legs, and now that he’s back on the big screen it would seem that Lucasfilm have some big plans for the fan favourite character moving forward.
During an interview with Uproxx, co-writer Jonathan Kasdan has explained that he was very keen to include Maul in a cameo from the very first stages of development on the movie, stating that:
“I was really passionate about him all the way through. I sort of had planted the seeds early and I wanted it to be built that way. And I wanted to reference certain forms of martial arts that might lead to it. And the presence of someone who was so terrifying in this crime world that you just had to know he was the guy who could control someone like Dryden. So he was part of the DNA of the thing.”
Kasdan went on to suggest to Comic Book that we won’t have seen the last of Maul: “It opened it up for us, and certainly I think there’s room to go back and forth with that character and knowmore, because he’s a rich, rich opportunity.”
While the obvious path would be to utilise Maul in the long-rumoured Obi-Wan Kenobi film, that storyline has been explored in some depth – and reached its natural conclusion – in both The Clone Wars and Rebels. Another possibility given recent talk of a Jabba the Hutt movie is to build to some kind of underworld war between the Crimson Dawn and the Hutt Clan, which could be further set up in the recently announced Boba Fett film or a Solo sequel.
Are you hoping to see Maul return in a future Star Wars movie, and if so, how do you think things will play out? Let us know in the comments below…
SEE ALSO: Solo: A Star Wars Story tops The Force Awakens as the most expensive Star Wars movie
A new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.
Solo: A Star Wars Story features Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!) as the famous smuggler, Donald Glover (Atlanta) as Lando Calrissian, Woody Harrelson (War for the Planet of the Apes) as Tobias Beckett, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as L3-37, Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Qi’Ra, Thandie Newton (Westworld) as Val, Ian Kenny (Sing Street) as Rebolt, Harley Durst (Wonder Woman) as Moloch, Jon Favreau (Spider-Man: Homecoming) as Rio Durant, Paul Bettany (Avengers: Infinity War) as Dryden Vos and Warwick Davis (Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi) as Weazel.
