Are we about to see an epic Star Wars rematch? Maybe! The general consensus from Star Wars fans would be that The Phantom Menace was not a great movie, really not even a good one by most accounts. However, if it had only one redeeming quality, it would be Darth Maul and more specifically, the fight between he and Obi-Wan. Well, there is some evidence to support the idea that the two are set to square off again in the new Star Wars canon, which surely we would all love to see.
Now, though this fight doesn’t look like it will be happening in a movie anytime soon, there is an increasingly better chance that this is something we could be seeing in season 3 of Star Wars Rebels. None of the evidence individually is all that eye catching, but the folks over at the fan site Star Wars News Net have put the pieces of the puzzle together, and the picture is becoming a bit more clear. The first clue came in the form of a character description for Darth Maul, which surfaced on the Disney XD website recently.
“Now freed from the dark depths of Malachor, Maul is running amuck in the galaxy. Driven by a decades-long thirst for vengeance that risks clouding his sanity, the restless former Sith Lord hopes to heal old wounds by completing a task he should have done years ago. Though Maul has found the galaxy has changed much during his exile, the dark side trickster knows where a few secrets are buried.”
The “old task” he is referring to could very well be killing Obi-Wan once and for all. For those who may not understand why we are even talking about Darth Maul, it was revealed in Star Wars: The Clone Wars that he actually survived the fight in The Phantom Menace and has a fancy pair of robot legs now. Plus, he is super angry and kind of unhinged. He also showed up at the end of Star Wars Rebels season 2 and is already set to appear in Star wars Rebels season 3. Now, he did fight Obi-Wan in The Clone Wars, but Maul opted not to kill him in that confrontation. So, he has some unfinished business.
The other, much more obscure potential hint from that description, lies in the use of the phrase “old wounds.” There was a comic book storyline called Old Wounds (which is no longer canon) that had Obi-Wan and Maul fighting roughly three years after the events of Revenge of the Sith. In vague terms, that sort of lines up with the timeline that Rebels takes place in. The show does bump up a little more closely to A New Hope, but it is close enough to think that could be something we are going to see next season.
The other evidence we have to support this theory comes from Twitter. The first is a Tweet from the official Star Wars account in late August. The Tweet featured a picture of Darth Maul choking Obi-Wan Kenobi and featured text stating “Maul’s quest for revenge against the Jedi who robbed him of hope consumed Mandalore.” So, was that random? Maybe not. The other tweet to note came from Ray Park, who played Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace. A fan tweeted a photo of Maul fighting Obi-Wan that was used as a promo picture for Vanity Fair in 1999. When asked about it, here is what Park had to say.
“It was just a promo shot for #VanityFair However it may be a sign of things to come…”
So yeah, that could very well be pointing to a rematch that pretty much every Star Wars fan would love to see, even if it is on Rebels as opposed to live-action. However, we can’t rule out the live-action possibility completely. Rumors have been swirling for a bit that one of the upcoming Star Wars spinoff movies could focus on Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the time period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Perhaps Lucasfilm and Park have been having some conversations we don’t know about? That is purely speculative. The more likely option lies with Rebels. Granted, Park does not voice the character in the show (Sam Witer does), but he could possibly know if the fight were going down. Also, Dave Filoni has said that he would love to have McGregor voice Obi-Wan on the show. They did get James Earl Jones for Darth Vader last season, so anything is possible. We’ll have to wait and see. Star Wars Rebels season 3 debuts on Disney XD on September 24.
Maul’s quest for revenge against the Jedi who robbed him of hope consumed Mandalore. pic.twitter.com/y8LTdiOPlU
— Star Wars (@starwars) August 23, 2016
It was just a promo shot for #VanityFair However it may be a sign of things to come???? https://t.co/C5flvZtDOR
— Ray Park (@IAMRayPark) August 20, 2016