According to The Hollywood Reporter, Ray Park, who played Darth Maul in “The Phantom Menace,” was originally meant to be part of the new Star Wars series, “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” but his scenes were written out.
Read the full report below:
“Darth Maul, a chief antagonist of Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi who first appeared in Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, should not appear in the series. But, according to sources The Hollywood Reporternot only was the Sith Lord originally slated to return to the live-action Disney+ series as a key villain, but actor Ray Park was in active preparation to reprise Maul.
However, that was before those scenes were removed amid a creative overhaul that eventually saw other antagonists, including Darth Vader, added to the series.
Hossein Amini was the original screenwriter who worked with director Deborah Chow on the six-episode series. And while it was reported that pre-production halted in early 2020 because Lucasfilm was unhappy with the scripts, the reasoning behind the hiatus was a bit more complex. According to sources, Chow showed the scripts to star wars stewards Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, who came out of the success of The Mandalorianfreshly launched in November 2019, and hard at work on season two.
Sources note that Filoni and Favreau were concerned about Obi Wan covering similar ground to mandalorian – the lone wolf and cub-like the story of Kenobi coming out of hiding to protect a child-aged Luke Skywalker. Maul was one of the villains who would participate in the couple hunt; Vader was nowhere to be found in that distant galaxy at this point, according to those familiar with the project. Additionally, Filoni and Favreau pushed Chow and the show to “go further,” according to multiple sources. Either way, those concerns were escalated to Lucasfilm executive Kathleen Kennedy, who pressed the pause button. (Joby Harold was eventually hired as the series’ new writer.)
It’s unclear how far in the process things first unraveled. A boy was cast to play the young Skywalker, but no scenes with him were shot. When it comes to Park’s Maul, the picture is murkier. A source says Park was on set for pre-production and was also involved in stunt training. The source says footage of Park may have been shot, although another source says it could be test footage. Either way, Park was back as Maul, or so he thought.
During the revamp, however, Maul was written out. A source says it was Filoni who conceptually identified a way for Vader to be brought back as the big bad, along with the Grand Inquisitor, a character made popular by Filoni in the animated series. star wars rebelsalso put in the story.
A Lucasfilm source contradicted the account, saying Maul never intended to return for the series.
The redesign also led to a new search for a young Skywalker, and a new actor was cast. THR learned that the new Luke is Grant Feely, whose only credit, according to IMDb, is an episode of Horror show.
Maul is one of the most popular villains in star wars lore, appearing in anime series including clone wars and rebels, which depicts the final battle between Maul and Kenobi. Maul (and Park) returned to live action for an appearance in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) which suggested the actor had more to do in the galaxy far, far away. Solo bombed, scuttling those plans, but soon fans speculated he might appear in Obi Wan, given that Maul was responsible for the death of Obi-Wan’s master, Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
Watch the first trailer for “Obi-Wan Kenobi” here.
“Obi-Wan Kenobi” will be available to stream May 25, exclusively on Disney+.
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