Sad news for fans of 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace as it appears that the popular Sith character, Darth Maul, was scrapped from the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
Originally it appeared that Darth Maul was meant to appear in the series as he and Obi-Wan Kenobi have one of the most famous revelries in franchise history. One report says that Maul would have been on a mission to find and hunt down Obi-Wan. Original Maul actor Ray Park was supposedly on set but his part was ultimately cut.
According to The Brag Park was already on set for pre-production and stunt training before the changes:
Before all of this happened, sources say the series was so far along with Ray Park coming back as Maul that he had already been sighted on set for pre-production and was involved in stunt training as well. Another source says footage of Maul had already begun being shot, although it could have been test footage.
The big reason as to why he part was cut appears to have been a result of the “extensive rewrites” the series went through in early 2020. One of the main concerns that were brought up were the similarities between the original scripts and The Mandalorian. That being a guardian character looking after a young force user.
Maul was cut and replaced with Darth Vader and The Grand Inquisitor serving as foes for the wise Jedi Master in addition to the new character Reva.
But one other reason why the character may have been cut could be due to Lucasfilm wanting to distance themselves from Ray Park. A few years ago the actor was in a controversy when he leaked a sex tape of his wife supposedly sleeping with another man.
Everyone is talking about how Maul was replaced with Vader for Obi Wan Kenobi series like this is brand new information.. we knew this YEARS AGO! Disney distanced themselves from him after he posted a Sex tape on Instagram to get back at his wife who he thought was cheating pic.twitter.com/Xf1DM5T2Sv
— thatstarwarsgirl77 (@thatstarwarsgrl) March 15, 2022
This would definitely be something that Lucasfilm or Disney would want to steer clear of. With all the bad PR they have had lately the last thing they need is any association with another controversy.
But this is speculation as the official reason seems to be the re-writes.
It is still a shame that we won’t end up seeing Maul and Obi-Wan battle again in live action. Though seeing him appear, even in a minor role like at the end of 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story, would have been interesting. Perhaps we could have even seen Maul encounter Vader.
Source: IGN
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