So, what’s the real purpose of including Maul in ‘Solo’ other than letting movie audiences know he’s alive? That’s still unclear. Maul doesn’t make much sense in a ‘Solo’ movie other than continuing his role as a silent puppetmaster crime lord. Solo and Chewbacca would be absolutely no match for him and their journey, as posed by the end of the ‘Solo’ movie, seems to be on another path towards a full-time career in smuggling, joining Jabba the Hutt’s crew and then, as we know, eventually falling afoul of Jabba and living life with a price on his head (admittedly, the Shadow Collective does touch the Hutt Clan so there are potential connections there). At best, Maul might make another cameo or small appearance, but it’s difficult to see a scenario where he’s a central factor of a ‘Solo’ sequel (which is likely never happening regardless thanks to this weekend’s box office results).
*Final Spoilers for Darth Maul*: watching “Star Wars Rebels” first is recommended.
Given the way movie studios (who often follow Marvel’s lead) use cameos and post-credit scenes for larger world building context and interconnective bridges, and given Maul’s very purpose for living, his storyline connects best to the Obi-Wan Kenobi stand-alone movie that’s in development and may or may not shoot next year. Kenobi is set sometime in the two decades between “Revenge Of The Sith” and “A New Hope,” during the Jedi master’s period of self-imposed exile, living in secret on Tatooine and quietly watching a young Luke Skywalker grow up from afar.
Now, it’s conceivable that Maul could meet up with Obi-Wan again, but the events of “Star Wars Rebels” render that idea mostly impossible. When Maul is next seen again, he’s been MIA and trapped on the planet Malachor for years after journeying there to find its ancient Sith temple. Maul’s story starts up again on ‘Rebels’ where two of the show’s Jedis, Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus (yes, some Jedi survived Order 66), arrive on Malachor for unrelated reasons and cross paths with him.
This storyline is a rather terrific and one I don’t really wish to spoil the details here because you should watch it in full, but the nuts and bolts of it are Maul begins to manipulate Ezra Bridger. And over the course of two seasons, exploits this new Jedi apprentice as a means to leverage greater knowledge of the Force/the Dark Side in order to discover the whereabouts of Obi-Wan and “exact my revenge on all my enemies!” which to him includes Vader and everyone (of course, if you want to see more, these videos will help).
And so, this story arc eventually leads Maul to Tatooine because he has learned—through this deeper exploration of the Force/Dark Side— the chosen one (Luke Skywalker) resides on this desert planet and his bête noire, Obi-Wan, has been hiding out on the planet and watching him for 19 years. The enemies have a showdown and it doesn’t go the way Maul hopes. That’s a wrap for this character and this time, it’s permanent. And these events are set about two years from the events of “A New Hope,” so we’re already at the Alec Guinness stage of Obi-Wan’s age.
So, while Maul coming to find Obi-Wan on Tatooine during his years of exile would make for a fantastic ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ spin-off movie, it can’t happen for the chief reason that those events have been covered and documented on ‘Rebels’ — we know they never meet again until nearly the very end of the master Jedi’s refuge on the planet.
That’s not to say, they couldn’t adapt that storyline, but it lasts all of one 22-minute episode. Lucasfilm generally doesn’t adapt stories in their movies that were already told in other pieces of canon and the story itself and their encounter (as you’ll see from the video), is incredibly brief and tragically anticlimactic for Maul given the years and years he’s invested in finding Kenobi. So, unless you’re attempting some major logic leaps, and to be fair, the Kasdans have already suggested some—insinuating that even though Solo doesn’t believe in the Force and thinks its mumbo jumbo, it’s still conceivable that could have crossed paths with a Sith like Maul—it’s impossible for Maul to discover Obi-Wan on Tatooine years earlier as that essentially undoes the story of “Star Wars Rebels” (and as fans are starting to realize, the more and more Lucasfilm begins to fill in every hole of timeline in the “Star Wars” universe, the more the company paints itself into corners).
At best, to make a Maul vs. an Ewan McGregor-aged Obi-Wan movie conceivable, Lucasfilm’s story groups could concoct a strained, off-world Tatooine story that takes place years before ‘Rebels,’ but doesn’t all of this already sound so… forced?
READ MORE: ‘Star Wars Rebels’: The Final Season, Beginners Guide [Bingeworthy Breakdown]
Which, back to the original point, makes Maul’s cameo frustrating. He can’t appear in the Obi-Wan spin-off—he’s been searching for him for decades and finally finds him on ‘Rebels’— and what could he possibly do in a ‘Solo’ sequel in any active capacity that doesn’t end with Maul (who is extremely lethal) killing Han and Chewie in less than half a scene? Whereas the vernacular of most post-credit scenes is to point to a continuation of what’s coming next, Maul’s appearance is vague and now further just dangling out there in uncertainty given the unlikelihood of another ‘Solo’ movie.
While, we’re here, what is a possibility for the Obi-Wan film is the presence of Inquisitors—force sensitive agents of the Empire trained in the art of the Jedi and Sith—first introduced in “Star Wars Rebels” as Jedi hunters tracking down errant Jedis who survived Order 66 (like the aforementioned Kanun Jarrus and Ezra). The plausibility issue is that they’re in a constant contact with the Darth Vader and the Emperor (both of whom turn up on Rebels via the Inquisitors) and if they had found a lead on Tatooine and suddenly vanished due to an altercation with Obi-Wan in that spin-off film, it wouldn’t take much for Vader—who you remember was raised on Tatooine—to know something was up. Obi Wan’s story is essentially predicated upon the idea that no one knows where he’s been or if he’s been alive for almost two decades. I digress.
OK, to tie this all together (finally) and perhaps in nerdier fashion, there is one further element that connects the ‘Solo’ movie to Darth Maul and Obi-Wan that everyone seems to have missed (and or I haven’t seen it written about online). Seen inside Vos Dryden’s pimped-out yacht ship is a Sith Holocron. Now holocrons are an entire story onto themselves, and there are Jedi and Sith holocrons, but they’re essentially artifacts slash talismans that contain information that can only be accessed by either Jedi or Sith (a Sith can’t use a Jedi holocron and vice versa). If somehow accessed together—central to Maul’s story in ‘Rebels’—they can bring infinite wisdom and knowledge and throughout his story, Maul is on the hunt for both to help track down Obi-Wan (Obi-Wan uses his Jedi holocron to record a message to any potentially remaining Jedi, post-Order 66, and urge them to go into hiding).
Given that Maul is no longer a Sith and has rejected their ways, the fact that Vos possesses a Sith holocron is a very big Easter Egg for eagle-eyed, clued-in “Star Wars” fans. Though how that’s explained remains to be seen. Perhaps further Maul comic books or novels will explore what the (now-nixed?) ‘Solo’ sequels might’ve ventured into. That’s it for now. Here are a few videos that essentially will quickly catch you up on all of Darth Maul’s known storyline post “Phantom Menace.”
Update: here’s proof of the Sith holocron from Lucasfilm itself and Pablo Hidalgo.
“Solo: A Star Wars Story” is in theaters now.