"At last, we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last, we will have revenge." - Darth Maul, The Phantom Menace
Darth Maul is a Sith warrior of the Zabrak race who appears as the apprentice of Darth Sidious in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. In the film, he is portrayed by martial artist Ray Park and voiced by British actor Peter Serafinowicz. Although supposedly killed in Phantom Menace, certain graphic novels in the Star Wars Expanded Universe have shown him to have survived the events of that film, returning to plague the Jedi as a cyborg. In the Clone Wars CGI TV series, Maul reappears to seek revenge against the Jedi who had "killed" him previously: Obi-Wan Kenobi. He survives well into the events of the series Star Wars: Rebels where, as well as continuing his quest for vengeance against Obi-Wan, also attempts to turn Ezra Bridger to the dark side of the Force. In The Clone Wars and Rebels, Maul is voiced by Sam Witwer.
History[]
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace[]
When the Trade Federation blockade around Naboo fails to prevent the escape of Queen Amidala, Darth Sidious - the Federation's mysterious backer - dispatches his apprentice Darth Maul to hunt her down and eliminate her Jedi guardians. Maul manages to trace the Queen's ship to the desert planet of Tatooine, and after arriving he deploys a number of probe droids to locate his prey. Just as the Queen's ship is about to leave the planet, Maul arrives and attacks Qui-Gon Jinn. Their battle is brief and the Jedi and their friends manage to escape to Coruscant.
After Queen Amidala returns to Naboo to lead the battle against the Trade Federation's occupation, Darth Maul is ordered by Lord Sidious to assist Federation viceroy Nute Gunray in securing the capital of Theed. When the Battle of Theed takes place, Maul battles against Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan using a double-edged lightsaber. The fight goes on for some time and takes the combatants through the palace hangar and into the reactor chamber. While Maul seemed to be on the defensive for most of the fight, he merely drew the Jedi into a battlefield of his own choosing. At one point, he, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were all separated from each other inside a ray-shielded corridor. The ray-shields briefly dropped, allowing Qui-Gon and Maul to continue fighting, but Obi-Wan was again trapped at the end of the corridor when the shields reactivated. Obi-Wan could only watch helplessly as Darth Maul fatally wounded his master Qui-Gon, but continued the battle was the shields in the corridor were released again. As Kenobi and Maul fought, Maul's lightsaber was damaged and he lost one of his blades, but gained the upper hand after knocking Obi-Wan into a reactor shaft. Obi-Wan clung on to the rim of an air vent in the shaft, but had also dropped his lightsaber, which Maul kicked down the shaft. Reaching out with the Force, Obi-Wan summoned Qui-Gon's lightsaber to his hand and leapt out of the shaft to grab it. This took Maul by surprise, who failed to react and found himself being slashed in half by Obi-Wan wielding his master's weapon. Maul fell into the reactor shaft and his two halves separated as he fell to his apparent death.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars[]
In spite of his terrible injuries, Maul survived his battle with Obi-Wan on Naboo. Tapping into his rage and hatred, Maul used the dark side of the Force to keep himself alive. As he had fallen down the reactor shaft, he grabbed the edge of an air vent and crawled inside, dragging himself toward a trash container. The container was later shipped to the planet Lotho Minor where Maul was discarded along with the rest of the trash.
For years, Maul lived deep in the bowels of Lotho Minor's junkheaps. He regained mobility by having his body grafted to an insectoid apparatus and sustained himself by bargaining with an Anacondan called Morley who brought him food in exchange for his leftovers. However, without any other sentient company and no means of getting off-planet, Maul eventually was driven mad with despair. The only reason he continued to survive was the possibility of taking revenge against the Jedi who had bested him: Obi-Wan Kenobi.
At the height of the galaxy-wide conflict known as the Clone Wars, Maul was discovered and rescued by his brother Savage Opress. When Savage found him, Maul was lost in a deep state of dementia with no memory of who he was much less his brother's identity. All that remained of the one-time Sith Lord was his lust for revenge against the Jedi. Believing that Morley had tortured his brother and driven him crazy, Opress killed the Anacondan and, to restore Maul's memories, took him to Dathomir, where Mother Talzin repaired Maul's mind and gave him a pair of cybernetic legs through an incantation, using parts of the Separatist droids destroyed during the Battle of Dathomir.
With his mind restored, Maul set out to seek revenge against Kenobi for defeating him on Naboo, and led the now-Jedi High Council member to Raydonia by slaughtering civilians to draw Kenobi out. Maul and Opress captured Kenobi, but the Jedi was rescued by Asajj Ventress, a former acolyte of Darth Tyranus and the Dathomir Witch who once commanded Opress. Kenobi and Maul engaged in a lightsaber duel for the first time in over a decade, and Maul attempted to goad Kenobi into anger by talking about how he killed Qui-Gon Jinn. Kenobi was briefly overwhelmed as a result, so he and Ventress escaped the ship. Although Kenobi had escaped, Maul knew that the Jedi would soon begin pursuing him, which would play into Maul's hand in his quest for revenge.
The brothers began a rampage across the galaxy, which took them to the Cybloc transfer station in the Cybloc system. After defeating the station's guards, the brothers discovered a credit coffer filled to the brim. Maul demonstrated his martial superiority to his brother by disarming him, earning the latter's respect. From that point, Maul referred to himself as Opress's Master, in the same manner as the traditional Sith Rule of Two dynamic.
After stealing the valuables on the space station, the brothers traveled to Florrum, where they bribed a squad of pirates into joining them. Although some joined, others questioned Maul and Opress's motives and were killed as a result, as Hondo Ohnaka, the pirate leader, was forced to watch. Eventually, the brothers were faced off against Kenobi and Adi Gallia, a fellow member of the Jedi High Council, who tracked them there. After a duel that left Gallia dead, Kenobi lured the brothers into the pirate base, where they continued their duel in an isolated passage. When Opress had his arm cut off, Maul knew they were outmatched and ordered a retreat. He also discovered that Ohnaka's forces reconciled with the renegade pirates, and likewise, Maul's hired group had turned on him. The brothers promptly escaped, although the escape cost Maul one of his artificial legs. They later barely escaped the doomed ship after one of Ohnaka's pirates shot out its engines with a rocket launcher. Because of this, Hondo believed that Maul and Opress were incinerated in the crash, though Kenobi suspected otherwise.
Though severely wounded, Maul eventually returned to health with aid from Pre-Vizsla and the Mandalorian Death Watch before forming a crime syndicate called the Shadow Collective, helping Vizsla to reclaim Mandalore using the collective, while secretly plotting to take over. The final part of his revenge was killing the only woman Obi-Wan ever loved, Duchess Satine, while he watched in horror. After killing Pre-Vizla in an honour duel and taking control of Mandalore as its leader, Maul's old master, Darth Sidious, arrived and fought both of them, seeing Maul as a rival despite the Zabrak's protests. He was able to kill Savage, and then engaged Maul briefly before disarming and electrocuting him. However, Sidious stated he wouldn't kill Maul as he had "other uses for him".
As revealed in the 4-part comic series "Son of Dathomir", Maul eventually escaped Sidious' clutches with aid from his Mandalorian loyalists. Maul's forces on the Mandalorian Death Watch were eventually overrun by General Grievous, and Maul was forced to retreat. Maul then sought Mother Talzin's aid. Talzin told Maul to raise an army from the Shadow collective and his old clan; the Nightbrothers. Though his use of deceit and trickery, Maul successfully captured General Grievous and Count Dooku. Maul then tempted Dooku into joining him against Sidious, hoping to lure him to Mother Talzin on Dathomir. Upon reaching Dathomir, Maul and Talzin tried to sacrifice Dooku so that Talzin (who revealed herself to be Maul's biological mother) could return to physical form (as her previous form had been destroyed by Mace Windu). However, the arrival of Sidious and Grievous halted their plans and after a duel in which Talzin sacrificed herself to allow Maul to escape, Maul fled, his plans in ruins, his army destroyed and in Sidious' eyes, no longer a threat or a Sith Lord.
Solo: A Star Wars Story[]
Maul makes a brief appearance towards the end of Solo: A Star Wars Story, which is set ten years before the events of Episode IV: A New Hope. It is currently unknown how, but Maul has established himself as the head of a crime syndicate known as Crimson Dawn, operating from the shadows while appointing Dryden Vos as the organization's public face. After Vos is killed by Han Solo, Qi'ra contacts Maul via hologram informing him that Vos was killed by the scoundrel Tobias Beckett. Maul then orders Qi'ra to meet with him on Dathomir before ending the transmission.
Star Wars: Rebels[]
In "Twilight of the Apprentice", it is revealed that Maul later fled to Malachor to get the Sith Holocron from the Sith Temple there and that he dropped the "Darth" title from his name. It is also revealed that sometime after Vader created the Imperial Inquisitorius, the Emperor had Vader dispatch the Eighth Brother to hunt him and the Holocron down. Maul first appeared when Ezra landed near him. He helped Ezra get into the Sith Temple by teaching him to act upon his passionate and aggressive tendencies. After they retrieved the Holocron, Maul helped the Jedi fight off the Eighth Brother, Fifth Brother, and Seventh Sister. After telling Ezra how to activate the Temple, Maul helps Kanan and Ahsoka kill the three Inquisitors. He then turns on and blinds Kanan with the intention of making Ezra his apprentice. Kanan recovers and drives Maul off, though Maul is able to escape the planet in one of the Inquisitor's TIE Fighters.
Maul returns in the episode "The Holocrons of Fate", in which he kidnaps the crew of the Ghost in order to bring Kanan and Ezra to him with the Holocron from Malachor so he can merge them, answer the question he seeks and glimpse the future. This prompted him to also try opening Kanan's Holocron to utilize its power, but as he could not call upon the Light side of the Force, he was unsuccessful. Upon luring the Jedi to his location at a Mandalorian asteroid outpost, Maul promptly tried to kill Kanan once Ezra was out of sight by shooting him out of an airlock, which Kanan barely survived. Maul then, with Ezra's help, merged both Holocrons and looked for the answers to his question (hope) while Ezra sought the key to destroying the Sith. When Kanan urged Ezra to look away from what he was seeing, the resulting explosion caused Maul to be blasted away and then escape. As he fled in his starfighter, Maul realized the answer to his question from what he had seen in the holocrons; that Obi-Wan Kenobi still lived.
In "Visions and Voices", because of the ritual of the Holocrons, Maul and Ezra were somehow mentally bound, which allowed Maul to find the rebel base on Atollon. He approached Kanan and Ezra who was talking with the Bendu to propose to Ezra to come with him to break the link definitively Initially reluctant, Ezra agreed and both left for Dathomir. Once they arrived, they made their way to the ancient fortress of the Nightsisters, Maul's deceased family, which was now used as a hidden lair for Maul. After fulfilling the ancient Nightsister ritual to break the mental bond between them, the spirits of the Nightsisters awoke and took control of Kanan and Sabine, who had followed Maul and Ezra. A battle then ignited between the two duets until Maul and Ezra escaped the cave, for the spirit could not follow because they were bound to the altar from which they drew their power. Maul suggested leaving but Ezra refused. Maul, exasperated by the sympathy and compassion of the young man towards his friends, told him that he had disappointed him and then left to find his old enemy, Obi-Wan.
In "Twin Suns", Maul wandered in search of Obi-Wan on Tatooine, intent on seeking his revenge. He soon became lost in the desert and screamed Obi-Wan's name, wondering if it was his destiny to die in the wastes of the planet. Regaining his determination, he continued in his search. Maul then set a trap for Ezra Bridger, luring him to a canyon with a piece of the Sith Holocron. After Ezra was attacked by Tusken Raiders who destroyed the young Jedi's ship, Maul intervened, slaying the Sand People before seemingly leaving Ezra alone and unharmed. As Ezra sought a way off-world and was caught in a sandstorm, Maul followed out of sight, knowing Obi-Wan would rescue him. As Ezra recovered and Obi-Wan explained to Ezra, Maul manipulated Ezra into seeking out Obi-Wan, trying to manipulate and accelerate events that were already in motion. He also further stated that Maul was an "old wound" that Obi-Wan himself must deal with, and not Ezra's responsibility. As Maul arrived, Obi-Wan faced down his old foe, whereupon Maul remarked and pondered as to why Obi-Wan would hide on such a planet. He then correctly deduced that Obi-Wan was protecting someone. Maul then readied himself as Obi-Wan and he ignited their lightsabers for one last confrontation. Maul then attacked, but Obi-Wan defeated the former Sith Lord in a few quick blows, severing his lightsaber and simultaneously slashing Maul across the chest. Shocked at being mortally wounded so quickly, Maul fell, only to be caught by Obi-Wan. He then asked if the person Obi-Wan was guarding was indeed the one who would destroy the Sith, to which Obi-Wan replied yes. Satisfied by this and finally having come to terms with his fate, with his last breath Maul stated that this "chosen one" would avenge him and Obi-Wan both. With this, Maul died, with Obi-Wan closing the fallen dark warrior's eyes out of respect for his old nemesis.