Darth Maul's Role in SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY Was Originally Much Different
As you know a lot of changes were made to Solo: A Star Wars Story after Phil Lord and Chris Miller were replaced by Ron Howard as the director. One of the changes that occurred in this time was Darth Maul’s role in the story and how he was handled.
The surprise appearance of Darth Maul was so freakin’ cool and exciting! The fans flipped their shit, but unfortunately, it’s a storyline that will never be explored now, which is a shame.
During a recent interview with Star Wars Holocron, Darth Maul voice actor Sam Witwer indicated that Maul's original role in the spinoff movie would have been much different than what we got. He also addressed replacing original Maul voiceover actor Peter Serafinowicz.
"There was stuff that had to happen once I got hired. There was a reshoot that had to happen because people like me and [Clone Wars and Rebels creator] Dave Filoni were letting them know there were a lot of details that weren’t consistent.”
He then talked about the work that Serafinowicz had done before replacing him and how it was different from what we know of the character:
"I don’t want to say that what [Peter] Serafinowicz was doing was bad. It just didn’t sound recognizable as the character from The Phantom Menace nor the character from Clone Wars. It was a totally different thing. They needed people to recognize the voice, so there it is."
Witwer went on to say, "[There were] a lot of things in this script where he growls, he does this, he does that." And when asked to elaborate on Maul's original role, he said:
"In 20 years, when I’m fully an old man and don’t care about anything, I will say things that will blow people’s minds and make national news and stuff. But no, I’m not that stupid yet."
Well, I’d be very interested in hearing these mind-blowing things about Darth Maul! Hopefully, we really don’t have to wait 20 years! Regardless, it sounds like whatever they were originally doing with the character was not consistent with who the character is. At this point, it doesn’t really matter because this story of Maul will probably never be explored anyway.