STAR WARS REBELS Finale Clip Reveals the Return of Darth Maul
Lucasfilm has released the first clip from the season two finale of Star Wars Rebels, and it features the return of Darth Maul. He’s not the Darth Maul you remember, though, as he is a lot older. In the clip, which was released on EW, Maul talks about his brother, Savage Opress, and his time as a “Force-wielder.” He also explains why the Inquisitors and the Sith are his enemies now. It gives us some great insight into what has happened to Maul since the end of the Clone Wars. Executive producer and showrunner Dave Filoni had this to say to the outlet about their plans on bringing the character back:
"The genesis of this idea is actually kind of an interesting one. I had pointed out several times in story meetings that we have an opportunity – if we wanted to – to actually have Darth Vader fight Darth Maul. That was something that [co-producer] Simon Kinberg and I were like, ‘Oooh…’ Then there was the opponent in the story meetings who would say, ‘Well, that’s fan service,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah –exactly.’ [Laughs] I don’t see the problem with that, but you know we were very careful that we don’t just do things because they’re cool. We want to do things that are story driven."
It would be amazing to see Maul and Vader come face to face, but it doesn't necessarily mean they'll have a one on one fight. Filoni explained:
"I don’t want to necessarily promise something that doesn’t happen – the Vader/Maul thing is interesting at a fandom level. [But] the more compelling personal story becomes about Ahsoka and Vader.”
He goes on to talk about why Maul is such an interesting character and if there is maybe, some good in him:
“He’s this person who has been on the dark-side, that has been thrown out repeatedly from the Emperor’s hierarchy but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a lot of the same tendencies as the Emperor and have the same desire for power. It became a really interesting story to tell, and a challenge, because at face value, Maul isn’t a guy you look at and go, ‘I trust you, devil-looking guy with horns on your head.’ So we had to paint an interesting picture here to get this kid to perhaps believe in him.”
Filoni and his team have developed a backstory for Maul. You won’t see it in this episode, and he wouldn’t reveal the full backstory, but he did say that Maul was brought to this planet and its temple "as a small child" by Darth Sidious to try to get the holocron.
The showrunner goes on to talk about Ezra and tease how far toward the dark side of the Force he will go with his with this new master:
"This whole season has been about getting Ezra to kind of explore the dark side of the Force and be aware of its existence on a powerful level that maybe he didn’t understand before. It’s really kind of an Empire Strikes Back movement for the series, where we bring the dark side out more to our heroes and challenge them with it. It’s going to get pretty crazy before the end here."
Filoni talks even more about Maul in the full interview, which you can read here. Star Wars Rebels "Twilight of the Apprentice" airs as a two-part finale on March 30th at 9pm on Disney XD.