George Lucas Planned to Make Darth Maul the Main Villain of Star Wars VII – IX
After years of waiting, fans finally got a new trilogy of Star Wars films titled, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, all of which were met with mixed results. Specifically because there didn’t seem to be any linear plot connecting each film into a satisfying whole, to say nothing of the trilogy’s lack of a clear-cut villain. As it turns out, George Lucas would have remedied the latter issue had he retained control of Star Wars; and his villain would have been none other than Darth Maul.
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That’s right. That guy a majority of audiences last saw tumbling down a deep shaft after getting sliced in two by Obi Wan Kenobi at the end of The Phantom Menace would have returned to stake his claim to the galaxy shortly after the events of Return of the Jedi.
At least, that’s what Lucas revealed in the book Star Wars Archives: Episode 1-3 The Prequels (via Screen Rant), which went on sale this week. In it, Lucas explained that, “Darth Maul trained a girl, Darth Talon, who was in the comic books, as his apprentice. She was the new Darth Vader, and most of the action was with her. So these were the two main villains of the trilogy. Maul eventually becomes the godfather of crime in the universe because, as the Empire falls, he takes over.”Leia would have led the New Republic in an effort to take down the big, bad Sith all the while Luke attempts to rebuild the Jedi Order from the ground up.
As an extra bit of fun, this story would have concluded with Leia discovering she was the Chosen One.
“By the end of the trilogy, Luke would have rebuilt much of the Jedi, and we would have the renewal of the New Republic, with Leia, Senator Organa, becoming the Supreme Chancellor in charge of everything. So she ended up being the Chosen One,” Lucas said, via IGN.
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Interestingly enough, Maul followed a similar trajectory during his extended stint on The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. So, we did get to see at least a glimpse of Lucas’ original plan. Whether it would have worked is entirely beside the point.
To be fair, Disney attempted to bring Maul back into the mix via a cameo appearance in Solo, but who knows if a sequel will ever come about. At any rate, please give us more live action Maul.
