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Ray Park was reportedly set to reprise his role as Darth Maul in the Disney Plus series Obi-Wan Kenobi, but was cut and replaced by other villains.
According to The Hollywood Reporter (opens in new tab), Park was actively preparing to return as Darth Maul in Obi-Wan Kenobi. The series reportedly featured Darth Maul as a key villain before scrapping the character and adding baddies including Darth Vader in his place. Park portrayed Darth Maul for the character’s debut in the 1999 movie Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, reprising the role in Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series and the 2018 feature Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Darth Maul was seemingly intended to be on the hunt for Luke and Obi-Wan, as written by Hossein Amini with director Deborah Chow. There were reports of Lucasfilm being unhappy with the scripts, but The Hollywood Reporters sources say the scripts were shown to The Mandalorian’s Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, and they were worried the show covered similar ground to them – a hunted youngling being defended by an older hero… sound familiar?
According to the report, Filoni and Favreau pushed Chow “go bigger,” and eventually Lucasfilm pushed pause so that they could finesse the story, and Joby Harold was hired as a writer. That meant losing Maul and adding Vader and the Grand Inquisitor – a character from Filoni’s animated Star Wars show Rebels. However, it’s murky on how far along pre-production came with the original scripts, with Park reportedly involved in stunt training, and one source saying scenes may have been shot with him. A different Lucasfilm source contradicted the claim, saying Park was never on the set of the Obi-Wan series.
As revealed in The Star Wars Archive (opens in new tab) (via Polygon (opens in new tab)), George Lucas’s original plans for the sequel trilogy included Darth Maul as the main antagonist, but as we all know Disney bought the rights to the franchise in 2012 and took it in a different direction. It seems the character nearly made another comeback in Obi-Wan Kenobi, but alas is not expected to appear in the series.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series is set to debut exclusively on Disney Plus on May 25, 2022. Ewan McGregor will reprise his role as the titular Jedi to take on Darth Vader, who is once again being portrayed by Hayden Christensen. You can check out the first Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer as well as the first look at Christensen’s Darth Vader.
For what to watch in the wait for Obi-Wan Kenobi, here are the best shows on Disney Plus right now.
