In the wake of a report claiming Ray Park was originally set to return as Maul in ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi,’ a Lucasfilm exec has stepped in to refute.
With the Obi-Wan Kenobi trailer officially out, fans have had their first look at what we can expect in terms of characters that will appear in the series. Alongside what was shown in the trailer, it’s also been confirmed that Hayden Christensen will be reprising his role as Darth Vader to cross sabers with Obi-Wan once more.
The original report from The Hollywood Reporter was that Ray Park was attached to come back as Darth Maul and face off against Kenobi, with a young actor cast to play a boy Luke Skywalker. According to The Hollywood Reporter‘s source, this idea was scrapped after showrunner Deborah Chow showed early scripts to Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau, who were fresh off the success of The Mandalorian.
Now, thanks to The Bespin Bulletin we know that Lucasfilm creative executive, Pablo Hidalgo, posted a response to these claims on their personal Twitter.
“A brown run rises. Bulls–t has been spilled.”
This Tweet was in response to news that was presented as such:
“Darth Maul was in the original plans for the ‘OBI-WAN KENOBI’ series with Ray Park originally signed on to return. Maul was cut from the series completely once the creative overhaul happened.”
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We still don’t know the full story, and who knows when all the details will be made available, but Hidalgo’s Tweet seems to be refuting all claims that Maul ever had a spot on the show although no evidence is provided to support the statement.
THR‘s original sources said the series was so far along with Ray Park coming back as Maul that he had already been sighted on set for pre-production and was involved in stunt training as well. Another source says footage of Maul had already begun being shot, although it could have been test footage.
Other details such as previous posts from Ray Park provide more evidence to the case that Darth Maul was set to return in Kenobi.
what was this about then? pic.twitter.com/mppHFNz8tH
— Paul (@streaupwafel) March 15, 2022
While this was Disney and Lucasfilms’s reported explanation for Park’s removal from the show, fans have a different theory. Around the same time that the rewrites happened an incident in which Ray Park’s Instagram account posted a video of someone receiving oral sex occurred. While many allegations have been made that it was Ray Park and his wife, Lisa Park, in the video, and that the post was a form of revenge porn, Lisa has vehemently denied them at every step.
Fans were theorizing this was the reason for Maul and Ray Park’s departure from the script, before Hidalgo’s Tweet. No comment has been made from Lucasfilm at this time.
