Darth Maul Was Originally Set to Appear in OBI-WAN KENOBI Before Darth Vader Was Included
It’s been a long road for Lucasfilm to get Obi-Wan Kenobi made. The project was in development for years and there were a lot of different directions that the story could have gone before the creative team finally landed on a story they wanted to tell.
Star Wars fans will be happy to learn that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni had a hand in the development of the series and during its development, they “pushed Chow and the show to ‘go bigger,’ according to several sources.”
At one point Darth Vader reportedly wasn’t going to be in it; the main villain would have been Darth Maul, and Ray Park was going to reprise his role. “One source says Park was on set for preproduction and was also involved in stunt training. The source says footage of Park may have been shot, although another source says it could have been test footage.” Regardless, Maul was going to be in the movie.
Those initial scripts involving Maul were written by Hossein Amini but Lucasfilm was not happy with the scripts he turned in. Director Deborah Chow ended up showing the scripts to Favreau and Filoni, and they helped a little bit in shaping the show.
Sources say that “Filoni and Favreau were concerned about Obi-Wan covering similar ground as Mandalorian — the Lone Wolf and Cub-like story of Kenobi coming out of hiding to protect a child-aged Luke Skywalker. Maul was one of the villains who would participate in the hunt for the pair; Vader was nowhere to be found in this faraway galaxy at this stage.”
In pushing the series to go bigger, Joby Harold was hired as the new writer. In his overhaul, Maul was removed from the story and it’s said that Filoni is the one that “conceptually keyed in on a way for Vader to be brought back as the big bad, with the Grand Inquisitor.” Of course, it was Filoni that swooped in to come up with the best way to include Vader in the story.
During the overhaul, it’s explained that the creative team also ended up casting a new actor to play a young Luke Skywalker.
I’m incredibly happy with what I’ve seen from the series so far in the trailer that was released. I can’t wait to see more and enjoy the continuation of Kenobi’s journey after the events of Revenge of the Sith.
The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his greatest defeat—the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.
The series stars Ewan McGregor, reprising his role as the iconic Jedi Master, and also marks the return of Hayden Christensen in the role of Darth Vader. Joining the cast are Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie.
Source: THR