It turns out Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi nearly featured fan-favorite Star Wars villain Darth Maul — until his scenes were cut.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, actor Ray Park was reportedly involved in preproduction and stunt training before being written out of Kenobi to make room for Darth Vader and the Grand Inquisitor. Conflicting sources say footage was shot, but that it may have just been test footage.
Maul debuted in 1999’s The Phantom Menace, played Park and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz. The character is a Zabrak from Dathomir who was abducted by Darth Sidious as a child and became his first Sith apprentice. He was seemingly killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi in Episode I, but in The Clone Wars (where he was voiced by Sam Witwer), it was revealed that he used the dark side to preserve himself. It was also established that he forfeited the “Darth” title and renounced the Sith after realizing he was simply Sidious’ pawn. Instead, Maul became a ruthless crime lord.
Maul would factor heavily into The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, the latter of which saw him encounter Obi-Wan once more, dying in a lightsaber duel. His last live-action appearance, however, was in Solo, which ended with him summoning Qi’ra to Dathomir and left his fate between then and Rebels unclear.
It’s worth noting that in February 2021 — several months before Obi-Wan Kenobi was due to begin filming — Park teased Maul’s return by sharing a picture of the head prosthetic that gives Maul his signature horns.
As for Kenobi, it’s no secret the Star Wars production underwent a creative shuffle, which saw production paused and writer Hossein Amini replaced with Joby Harold. McGregor downplayed the production issues in January 2020, saying, “The scripts are excellent and they just want them to be better, so we just pushed it back. It’s very dramatic, it would seem, online. There’s all kinds of shit online about it but it’s only just slid back a bit, but we’re still shooting it, it’ll still be aired when it was meant to be, and I’m really excited about it. It’ll be fun to play again.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres May 25 on Disney+.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
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