Maul in Kenobi

I...don't know how I feel about this

 

I think it's because the Marvel movies consist of several sub-franchises (i.e., Iron Man, Thor, Captain America etc.) whereas Star Wars is a singular franchise.

Remember the petition to shut down Rotten Tomatoes by angry DC fans over Suicide Squad's negative reviews? Well, angry Star Wars fans did the same in response to TLJ's positive reviews. I've also noticed there's some overlap between hardcore DC fans and those who hate these new Star Wars movies as well as Marvel, so brand tribalism also plays a part in it.

 

The most interesting thing about Maul in Solo is what it means for Star Wars films moving forward.

You could think of Solo as akin to the first Iron Man film. Maul is something like Nick Fury - connective tissue.

Solo going out of its way to include a resurrected Maul seems to imply they are setting him up for the heavily rumored (if not basically confirmed at the point) Kenobi film. It would be BEYOND bizarre to resurrect Ray Park as Maul in one film and then do a Kenobi film with Ewan McGregor and not feature the other. Like ... it would never happen.

But thinking beyond this, in this scenario you could think of Kenobi as Captain America. We know they are looking at Solo as a potential trilogy of films (especially if you include Qi’Ra or Lando movies which Solo sets up as well). What if Kenobi is being conceptualized as a potential trilogy just like Solo? In fact, why wouldn’t it be? 19 years is a long time period to play with - easily three films worth.

And taking it a step further, if Kenobi is Cap you could introduce another character (like Black Panther in Civil War for example) in Obi’s first film to sets up THEIR own movie. Like Boba Fett, who many are speculating would make sense in a Kenobi film, especially with Maul in the mix. That’s not even getting into Empire/Vader focused movies which Rogue One setup for new viewers.

I think Solo does a lot more than introduce a young Han and a resurrected Maul. It sets up the next ten years of Anthology films. If Solo performs well and is well received (at this point both seem likely) I would expect LFL to quickly announce Kenobi, plus a Solo sequel, and get them on the schedule. As excited as I am for Solo, I’m already looking past it a bit to see what moves LFL announce, to see if they align with my theory.


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The more I think about it the more I can see the Kenobi film crossing over multiple years and eventually showing the Maul vs Obi-Wan fight from Rebels but with it expanded upon and/or adjusted slightly.

There’s just too few people who saw it on the small screen. The films become part of pop culture history. They’re just seen by far more people overall.

Content that’s already existed in other forms gets adapted to the big screen all the time anyway.

 

It has to be remembered that just because it's maul doesn't mean he is being set up for kenobi. He could be set up for a Han solo sequel, maybe a boba fett film ect ect

He is playing a crime lord so it could go many directions. Yes it would be almost a shame if it isn't kenobi but I don't think it has too be Kenobi.

 

This is so surreal. A week ago, if someone told me I would be spending most of my free time talking about Darth Maul, I would’ve asked to inspect what they were smoking.

 

No it doesn't but in terms of what we know of Maul's timeline this is what happened after the unseen TCW story when he face off with Ahsoka and Rex:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Darth_Maul

Maul traveled to Malachor in search of an ancient weapon located within the planet's Sith temple. However his ship crashed, leaving him trapped there for years without contact from the wider galaxy.

So depending on the timeline you could have Maul crashing in a spaceship and being "killed" again in the movies at some point.

 

The only thing that would make this worthwhile for me is if Siege of Mandalore is finally made.

 

They never specify when after the Siege of Mandalore he was stranded on Malachor, so that leaves some wiggle room for him to be active as a crime lord. IIRC Solo takes place around 10 BBY, so maybe the Kenobi film takes place around that time period as well and we see how he got stranded there and killed the Inquisitor whose lightsaber he then stole (according to his Wookiepedia profile).

 

Not to open a wound, but there were two factors, IMO.

1) The PT-lovers who think George Lucas has been unfairly maligned. Many who didn't like the PT were pleased with the sale and KK, and those who were defensive of Lucas felt the need to take sides.
2) The old EU loyalists. Some of them are super mad still.

 

Except that Maul thinks Kenobi is dead.

 

All you have to do is leave Kenobi thinking Maul is dead - as they did in TPM. There's nothing in Rebels that rules out another Maul vs Kenobi clash. I think they knew when they wrote Twin Suns that they needed to leave it open.

And agree about Maul's appearance suddenly opening the doors on a dark times series. But I wouldn't expect to see Kenobi gadding around with Han. They've never met in ANH. Chewie, maybe - that could work - but you'd need to avoid the Falcon as well I think - unless they retcon it that Kenobi is pretending he's never heard of it when we know he was on it with Chewbacca that time. But that's needlessly cute IMO and I would imagine they'll avoid stuff like that. There's one other thing I heard about Solo that could open the door to run-ins wit people like Saw and the Partisans - but I could be totally interpreting that wrong. But those guys were were awesome and could easily feature as one of the factions.

What's weird about SW vs Marvel though - due to the chronology of production vs chronology of the fictional timeline is that so far, most of the SW stories seem to be working backwards, or filling in gaps. At some point they will start building forwards from spin-offs around the ST you would assume. Or maybe that will be the RJ/ W&B stuff.

 

Obiwan should not leave Tatooine during the dark times.

If they want another Maul and Obiwan encounter its going to be contrived. We also don’t need another reason why Maul thought Obiwan was dead. It’s already obvious why he thought so.

Maul works much better if a live action TV series was made in this era someday about he criminal underworld or have him appear in a upcoming non-Kenobi anthology.

 

There is no way he's not fighting Kenobi. So, they'll do whatever they do I guess.

 

Yup. Specifically, there’s a Tognath in the Cloudriders gang that could be Edrio or Benthic Two-Tubes from Saw’s partisans. And as it looks like the Cloudriders are prototype-Rebels/ partisans of sorts, they could get mixed up with Saw eventually.

Also, has anyone who saw the film mentioned anything about Saw and Co. being involved in the Mimban fight?

 

I feel like there is no reason why he couldn't leave at least once or twice.

It is 20 years worth of sitting on a planet and its not like he can always be watching luke its assume its partly for hiding too

 

Yeah, it depends. If Ben felt Maul and his gang were a legitimate threat to Tattooine/Luke in any way, I’m sure he’d do something about it. Watching over someone also means sometimes you need to intervene. This could be one of the few times.

 

From the perspective of someone who never really got into the animated stuff...

On one hand I think it's kinda dumb and uninspiring to bring back a character who -- as far as the films are concerned -- should be dead. I'd like to move on and see original characters. I don't really like what this shows about the direction of LF's thinking.

On the other hand he was so underdeveloped in TPM that he's basically a blank slate who still has potential to be interesting and I'm curious to see what could be done with him on film.

 

Yeah. If they want a story in which Kenobi has no choice but to leave Tatooine for awhile, then its not hard for them to come up with a reason.

 

Kenobi’s gonna leave the planet. I have little doubt about that.

 

Had Maul not been a part of the equation, I'd have been down with Kenobi on Tatooine in a Samurai/ Western type film. But as we know Maul can't set foot on Tatooine, and as we know it's highly unlikely Maul and Kenobi won't clash again, leaving the planet has to be a sound bet.

 

Really? I've seen a lot of blame set squarely on Rian Johnson's shoulders, as it should be. The man wrote and directed, right?

Maul is slowly building an underground power base from a secret base, and then word of his whereabouts somehow gets out, and then all hells break loose : Sidious is irritated that his former apprentice just doesn't seem to take the hint and die already, Jabba still remembers the time when Maul just strolled into his palace to take over his operations and Gar Saxon doesn't want his former boss coming back. Cue the Imperial Navy (probably with a helping of Vader and Inquisitors), Mandalorion Commandos and Jabba's forces of mercenaries and bounty hunters coming in to deal with that one cockroach and some of the characters (and probably the audience) going "Huh, isn't that overkill?". The movie ends on Maul barely escaping, crashing on Mandalore and the last shot of the movie involves Witwer giving us Maul's signature half-sob, half-laugh that he sometimes get when he's on the brink of going insane again.

He's no longer a blank state though. And I think that there is enough to his character now that big variations could be taken badly by the fandom.

 

I think they're definitely setting up for Maul and Qi'ra to be the antagonists in Kenobi (and maybe Qi'ra dies then, in Last Shot which is 5 years post Solo Han certainly appears to be grieving over her death). I don't think Han would appear in the films though, because if he doesn't believe in the Force, then it seems he hasn't run into Maul or Obi-Wan, and he clearly doesn't know Obi-Wan in ANH.