Darth Vader is the ultimate Sith of Star Wars, but Disney has turned Maul into a much more compelling character. That’s in spite of the fact Maul apparently died in The Phantom Menace all the way back in 1999; George Lucas himself realized this was a mistake, leading to a resurrection plot for the Sith apprentice in The Clone Wars. Maul became a third force during that galactic war, a potential rival for Palpatine himself, while he pursued a relentless vendetta against Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, swiftly cancelling The Clone Wars in favor of their own animated spinoff, Star Wars Rebels. We’ve since seen some of the coolest Darth Vader moments in canon (including Rogue One‘s epic hallway scene). And yet, Darth Maul has somehow become symbolic of the Disney era. The Sith apprentice has appeared in so many thrilling stories over the last 13 years, and he’s developed into a more compelling character than even Darth Vader. But why has Maul become the key Sith of the Disney era, rather than Darth Vader?
The key problem with Darth Vader is simple: there’s a sense in which the character is just too big, too well-defined. The iconic Sith Lord is one of the most iconic villains in the history of cinema, in large part because Lucas defined him so well. Vader enters the screen as a powerhouse in A New Hope, but morphs into something so much more personal in The Empire Strikes Back, ahead of his unforgettable redemption in Return of the Jedi. Vader’s story has been told in full, his character arc has been completed in spectacular (and satisfying) fashion, and it can’t be improved.
Lucasfilm president Dave Filoni recently addressed this in an interview with Inverse. “He’s a powerful character,” Filoni said. “This is George’s character. This is the backbone of the whole thing, and you don’t want to do anything that interrupts that.” In fact, surprisingly, he insists the only way to handle Vader is to be careful of not developing him at all. “The key is not to actually give him a character,” he noted. “It’s like the same feeling you got in Rogue One when he comes down the hallway. He doesn’t talk to those guys. He’s going to destroy them. He has one mission, and all of his remorse and all of his anger and all of his hate is in every swing that he does. That’s how it’s resolved.”
To be fair, Disney has definitely tried – and some of the attempts have been deeply impressive. Rogue One‘s hallway scene is a stunning moment, reminding viewers why Darth Vader was feared. Over in the comics, the 2015 “Vader Down” event is still one of Disney’s best ever Star Wars stories. But the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV show largely fell flat, while Disney’s best Star Wars show deliberately skipped Darth Vader. As Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy explained, “Writing for Darth Vader is really limiting. I’ve done it. He doesn’t have a lot to say.”
The fandom naturally reacted with fury to those comments. But Gilroy’s point (not particularly well-expressed) was that Darth Vader has already said everything that he needs to say. More recent comics have illustrated that fact rather well; set closer to Return of the Jedi, they’ve alternated between setting up the redemption a little too much and trying to find a way to reverse on that setup to preserve the “surprise.” Darth Vader will always be at the center of Star Wars, but that means he’s already been explored.
In contrast, Darth Maul is more of a tangent – and, therefore, Disney’s writers have much more room to maneuver. His story was unexpectedly woven into Star Wars Rebels, culminating in a masterpiece episode featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi. It’s true there were missteps; Maul’s cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story was ill-considered, because it was aimed at a wider audience who didn’t even know Maul had been brought back from the dead. But Lucasfilm has smartly pivoted on this, using Solo as setup for Maul’s own TV show.
Maul played a key role in Disney’s Clone Wars revival, which finally unveiled his epic duel with Ahsoka Tano and revealed how he survived Order 66. The ongoing Maul – Shadow Lord TV show has become one of the most popular Star Wars TV series of all time (it currently has a critic score of 98% on Rotten Tomatoes). It’s basically a character study in the former Sith Apprentice, showing his reaction to the Dark Times of the Empire’s reign, while also serving to set up that ill-advised Solo Maul cameo.
With Darth Vader, we already know how the full story will play out. With Maul, however, there’s a massive gap in the narrative that allows writers to have a lot of fun with the character. Already Maul – Shadow Lord has fleshed him out in surprising ways, turning him into a far more tragic figure. There’s one epic moment in the show where Maul swears to his past self that he won’t let anyone else suffer at Sidious’ hands as he has done, giving him an odd nobility for all his villainy.
Both Vader and Maul were Palpatine’s victims. The difference between the two, though, is that Maul acknowledged this and tried to do something about it, albeit in his own broken way. This makes Maul’s story tremendously compelling, while Vader’s is locked in a status quo that cannot shift and change at all until the events of the original trilogy. Looking back, then, it’s no wonder Disney Star Wars has succeeded with Maul so much more than with Vader.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
