Nostalgia has always played a role in latter-day Star Wars projects, with everything from Solo: A Star Wars Story to The Book of Boba Fett copiously referencing beloved components of the franchise’s past. It’s produced some of the memorable Star Wars moments of the last few years, notably Luke Skywalker’s surprise appearance in The Mandalorian Season 2, Episode 8, “The Rescue.” Such “blasts from the past” have become expected and they’re great fun, but they’ve also led to justified accusations of favoring fan service over plot.
There are times, however, when efforts at nostalgia take a step too far, and the franchise has taken the right step by dropping the idea. A good case in point is the recent news surrounding a possible appearance from Darth Maul in the upcoming Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi streaming series. The rumors have been shut down, and Maul will not be making a return. It’s almost certainly the right call. While Maul remains a popular character, and his rivalry with Kenobi became one of the great feuds in the whole franchise, there is such a thing as too much nostalgia.
Maul began as a way of demonstrating the differences between Sith Lords. As Palpatine’s first apprentice, he was volatile and rage-filled, lacking the control that Darth Vader later demonstrated. He arrived like a thunderbolt at the climax of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, and his epic duel with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan remains a franchise highlight. That might have been his only appearance in the prequels – Kenobi cut him in half, after all – but fans fell in love with him on the spot, and he soon proved too popular to keep down.
An epic run on Star Wars: The Clone Wars depicted both his agonizing return from near-death and his elaborate efforts to take revenge on Kenobi. That included the murder of Obi-Wan’s estranged love Satine Kryze and run-ins with Ahsoka Tano before the end of the war sent Kenobi into exile. The events of Solo: A Star Wars Story revealed Maul to be the leader of the criminal empire Crimson Dawn, and he resurfaced later during the events of Star Wars: Rebels as a treacherous would-be ally for Ezra Bridger. When he learned Kenobi was still alive, however, he hunted down his old foe. They confronted each other in a final duel during the events of Rebels Season 3, Episode 20, “Twin Suns,” where Obi-Wan slew him before burying him in the desert.
Those events took place only two years before the Battle of Yavin, while the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi take place several years before that. Maul is therefore among the living and could conceivably make his return without disrupting canon. Given his popularity, and given how deeply he’s connected to Kenobi as a foe, it’s no surprise that the new streaming series initially aimed to place him front and center. Doing so, however, would have been a mistake. In the first place, Maul would have to survive any encounter with Kenobi, and since Kenobi himself must survive to the end of the series, that robs the scenario of any tension or drama. Furthermore, it would require lugubrious explanation to fit in with the timeline, which involves a number of disparate threads that won’t necessarily connect neatly together. To go through all of that just so Kenobi can kill him in a few years feels like a waste.
More importantly, it would labor to produce any new drama in a storyline that has been rife with it. Their rivalry has been covered in two television series and the beginning of the saga itself. Finding something new to say would be difficult in the extreme. Moreover, Maul’s presence on Tatooine would focus attention on Luke – still a boy during Obi-Wan Kenobi – whom Maul would invariably seek to corrupt or destroy. As Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau recently pointed out to The Hollywood Reporter, that would tread dangerously close to the already-established themes of The Mandalorian, with a seasoned warrior protecting a seemingly powerless child from Imperial forces.
Instead, the series demonstrably moved in a different direction: refocusing on Darth Vader and the Inquisitors, and letting Maul rest in peace. As wonderful as it would be to see the character back onscreen, Obi-Wan Kenobi needs to take its story somewhere new. Maul could certainly return in The Bad Batch or any number of projects, so losing him here doesn’t mean losing him for good. Stewardship of these characters is a considerable part of Star Wars’ legacy. Sometimes – as with Maul at this stage of the franchise – that means knowing when not to use them.
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ on May 25.
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