Turns out Darth Maul was originally the ‘Star Wars’ Sequel Trilogy villain

Had George Lucas got everything his way for the ‘Star Wars’ Sequel Trilogy, iconic villain Darth Maul would’ve been the big bad.

Now that I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, I now look back on the films as… pretty meh actually (except for The Last Jedi). Everything from the messy narrative, terrible characterisations (both on and off the screen), and the way they brought Palpatine as the actual big bad (again), it all left a bad taste in my mouth.

So it pains me even more to find out that George Lucas had some pretty interesting plans for his version of the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, namely how he actually wanted Darth Maul to be the big bad.

Reddit user bothanspy89 shared a post from the Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005 book (via Screen Rant) that arrived earlier this week and revealed that Darth Maul had actually survived his skirmish with Obi-Wan Kenobi and went on to train a new Sith apprentice before rising to become the new villain of the story.

“Darth Maul trained a girl, Darth Talon, who was in the comic books, as his apprentice,” Lucas explains in the book, which detailsthe making of the Prequel Trilogy. “She was the new Darth Vader, and most of the action was with her. So these were the two main villains of the trilogy. Maul eventually becomes the godfather of crime in the universe because, as the Empire falls, he takes over.”

In addition to Darth Maul being the big bad, which would’ve made for a far more interesting choice than Palpatine, Lucas’ version of the Sequel Trilogy would’ve focused more on Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia Organa.

Apparently the films would’ve started a few years after Return Of The Jedi with Luke Skywalker rebuilding the Jedi Order and training a new generation of heroes. Leia would’ve played a big part in the narrative and the trilogy was to conclude with the reveal that she was in fact the Chosen One.

“By the end of the trilogy, Luke would have rebuilt much of the Jedi, and we would have the renewal of the New Republic, with Leia, Senator Organa, becoming the Supreme Chancellor in charge of everything. So she ended up being the Chosen One.” says Lucas.

But alas, it didn’t pan out this way as Lucas ended up selling LucasFilm to Disney in 2012 and the House of Mouse ended up doing their own thing to Star Wars.

We were oh so close to having more Darth Maul but instead all we got was a quick cameo in that terrible Solo movie. Talk about what could’ve been.

Check out Darth Maul being a badarse in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8G3BKjGjJmA&ab_channel=JustTheClips

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