Star Wars: 5 Things You Might Not Know About Darth Maul

There’s just something about Darth Maul. The short-lived villain from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace became a standout fan favorite because of his appearance and acrobatic lightsaber moves, and after his return in season four of The Clone Wars, he moved into other mediums like the four-part Son of Dathomir comic series. George Lucas approved Maul’s return in The Clone Wars and a since-cancelled LucasArts video game.

Even at the end of Son of Dathomir, Darth Maul continues to cheat death and persist. This comic series is significant because it is the first Star Wars story in the new canon after most of the Expanded Universe was declared Legends. This means that Maul is alive and well in current Star Wars continuity...Could we see him in future film installments, perhaps? Or in a standalone film? He seems too big a character not to use again. Anyway, we can hope!

Here are some facts you may not have known about the Sith apprentice, either behind the scenes or in the galaxy far, far away:

His design was created by Iain McCaig

Ian McCaig is the same designer whose art would eventually inspire the witches of Dathomir in The Clone Wars. Early concept art for the character showed a villainous-looking woman with hair falling in strands across her face. McCaig experimented with ink-blot “Rorschach” designs as well as flayed-looking faces before finding the right look for Darth Maul. The tattoos on his face follow the muscle structure beneath.

A canonical connection between the Dathomiri witches and the Sith would only be established later on in The Clone Wars, and now continues into the new canon, but the connection was always there in the art. Iain McCaig also designed many of Padme’s outfits in Episode I.

Darth Maul wears an earring in the film - but this wasn’t planned. 

Actor Ray Park put on a small, silver earring before sitting down to do the Darth Maul makeup, and only noticed it later. But George Lucas said he liked it, so the earring stayed. In the same interview, Park says he sees the earring as an aspect of himself, not of the character - and in an expanded universe where every doodad and costume piece usually has a story, there has never been a canon explanation to give this particular detail a role in Darth Maul’s history.

Ray Park also had a hand in developing Maul’s fighting style, and asked that the hilt of Maul’s double lightsaber be lengthened so that he could use it more efficiently.

He’s had two different mothers.

In Son of Dathomir, Talzin says that she’s Maul’s blood mother. This is different from his history in Legends, but only slightly. Maul’s original mother, from the young adult novel The Wrath of Darth Maul, was a human Nightsister named Kycina, from a region called Blue Desert City. It’s still possible that Talzin is lying, but The Clone Wars gave Maul an entire family.

[related article: Was Killing Darth Maul George Lucas' Biggest Prequel Mistake?]

We’re not precisely sure how the brothers Feral and Savage are related, but they could all be blood related from this same family. Who is the father? We don’t know yet.

Maul, like many other villains, earned his cyborg parts.

In Star Wars, cybernetic implants are like battle scars. This isn’t unique to antagonists, but Darth Vader and General Grievous had extensive cybernetic reconstruction. Darth Maul goes through this in The Clone Wars, too, although it isn’t overtly obvious in Son of Dathomir. Maul’s legs are of a similar design to Grievous’, and were built out of Nightsister magic and scrap parts by Mother Talzin.

A similar design for Darth Maul appeared many years earlier in Old Wounds, a comic which was never canon. The Clone Wars featured an entirely new design for Maul: an eight-legged body made out of scrap metal.

He sought his master's approval even while trying to destroy him.

Sure, Darth Maul was a bit of a pushover for getting cut in half by a teenage Padawan. But in Son of Dathomir, he and his combined forces of Mandalorians and criminals capture both Count Dooku and General Grievous without lengthy battles. Once he has them, Maul parades his success in front of Darth Sidious in one of the most telling parts of the comic.

Maul displays Grievous and Dooku to Sidious so that the Sith Lord can see their failure. For someone who has been opposing Sidious for years on The Clone Wars, Maul is very quick to show off to him - which makes for a bitter, twisted moment in Maul and Sidious’ long-standing Master-apprentice relationship.

In that way, the Son of Dathomir comic doesn’t just make Maul more powerful, although The Clone Wars has always expanded his range of skills from what was seen in The Phantom Menace. It also tells a lot about how Maul seeks both revenge on and approval from his master - and that’s a story thread that started all the way back in The Phantom Menace.

With only a brief movie appearance, Maul has arguably become as long-lasting a villain as Darth Vader. Could it be time for the villain's resurgence? He's the only Sith Lord in current continuity who still lives, albeit with machine parts (but that didn't stop Vader). Maul would be a welcomed addition, a perfect big bad, for one of those Star Warssolo films. The original Phantom Menace waits in the shadows. Perhaps now, he will finally get his revenge.