Darth Maul is a fictional character in the science fiction franchise Star Wars. Trained as Darth Sidious's first apprentice, he serves as a Sith Lord and a master of wielding a double-bladed lightsaber. He first appears as a primary antagonist in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (portrayed by Ray Park and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz) and is a recurring antagonist in Star Wars: The Clone Wars (voiced by Samuel Witwer). He also appears in Star Wars Rebels (also voiced by Samuel Witwer).
The Phantom Menace[]
Introduced in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul is ordered by Darth Sidious to capture Queen Padmé Amidala. On Tatooine, Maul fights Qui-Gon Jinn while approaching the Queen's starship. While Anakin Skywalker gets on board, Qui-Gon engages Maul in a lightsaber duel, but the Jedi Master manages to get away. During the film's climactic scene, Maul fights Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan Kenobi at the same time. Maul duels Qui-Gon while Obi-Wan becomes separated by laser gates. This leaves Qui-Gon to fight Maul alone. Maul eventually overpowers the Jedi Master and stabs him through the stomach with his lightsaber, mortally wounding him. Obi-Wan rushes to fight Maul after the laser gates re-open. Obi-Wan cuts the Sith Lord's lightsaber in half, but is nearly knocked down into a vast reactor pit, dangling on the edge, and Maul kicks the Padawan's lightsaber into the pit as well. However, Obi-Wan uses the Force to propel himself out of the pit, and equips himself with Qui-Gon's lightsaber to slice Maul in half at the waist, after which the two pieces of Maul's body fall into the pit.
The Clone Wars[]
Darth Maul returns in the CGI cartoon series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (set between Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith).
In the third season, Darth Maul's origins are elaborated upon: he is portrayed as a warrior of the Nightbrother clan on the planet Dathomir inhabited by the dominant Nightsisterwitchcraft society led by Mother Talzin. Maul's tattoos are described as the markings of a warrior (in contrast to earlier sources which identify his body art as Sith markings). Talzin has Savage Opress find his long lost brother.
In the fourth season, Darth Maul himself returns. In his story arc, Maul survives his duel with Obi-Wan, but is driven insane by being cut in half, and suffers from amnesia for the next decade. When Opress finds him, however, Maul recovers his memory and dedicates himself to taking revenge on Obi-Wan. Opress brings him back to Dathomir after the Nightsisters are slaughtered by Separatists droids, and rebuilds the Sith Lord's body with a pair of robotic legs crafted by Talzin's magic. With his mind and body restored, Maul learns that the Clone Wars have started without him.[7] With Opress' help, he proceeds to exact revenge by luring Obi-Wan Kenobi into a trap by attacking a small village on the Outer Rim planet Raydonia, knowing that the Jedi will come to assist. However, Asajj Ventress' unexpected appearance to collect a bounty on Opress thwarts Maul's plan. Obi-Wan and Ventress duel Maul and Opress in the cargo bay of the latter's stolen ship, but soon realize that they are outmatched and are forced to flee. Maul decides not to pursue the jettisoned pod, but to wait for another opportunity, realizing that the Jedi already know of his continued existence through the Force.
In the fifth season, Darth Maul continues to appear with Savage Opress. With Opress as his apprentice, Maul begins building a criminal empire. Needing followers, they travel to Florrum and manage to convince Weequay pirate Jiro and his crew to join them and betray their leader Hondo Ohnaka. Maul once again duels Obi-Wan, while Opress fights and kills Jedi Master Adi Gallia. Nevertheless, the duel goes badly for Maul: the pirates blow off Maul's robotic legs, Obi-Wan cuts off Opress's arm, and Maul's ship is badly damaged, forcing Maul and Opress to escape. Maul and Opress are later found by the Death Watch Mandalorian warriors, led by Pre Vizsla, who gives Maul a new set of legs and Opress a new mechanical arm. Maul offers Vizsla the chance to reclaim Mandalore by recruiting the Black Sun and Pyke crime families and Jabba the Hutt's minions to create the criminal syndicate Shadow Collective.
From there, Maul engineers Vizsla's rise to power: he orders his henchmen to attack Mandalore so the Death Watch can arrest them, making themselves look like heroes to the planet's inhabitants, who have long lived under Duchess Satine Kryze's pacifist rule. Maul allows himself to be arrested and decides to replace Vizsla with the prime minister Almec, whom Satine had imprisoned for corruption. Easily breaking free, Maul challenges Vizsla to a duel to take over the Death Watch and Mandalore; he succeeds in killing Vizsla and then claims his former co-conspirator's darksaber. He wins the loyalty of most Death Watch members, but Bo Katan retreats along with those loyal to their previous leader. Maul then anticipates Satine being broken out of prison and her attempt to contact the Jedi Council as part of his plan to get Obi-Wan to Mandalore. Once Obi-Wan arrives and attempts to rescue Satine, Maul captures him and exacts revenge on the Jedi by murdering Satine right in front of him. Obi-Wan is freed by the Night Owl rebels, however.
Maul senses Darth Sidious arriving on Mandalore. Although impressed with his former apprentice's survival, Sidious declares Maul a rival and uses the Force to push and choke him and Opress. He then engages them both in lightsaber combat, fatally injuring Opress. After Opress dies from his wounds, Sidious reminds Maul of the Rule of Two and that he had been replaced. Enraged, Maul pulls out both his lightsaber and darksaber and proceeds to fight Sidious on equal ground, but Sidious ultimately defeats him. Maul pleads for mercy, but Sidious ignores him and tortures him with blasts of Force lightning. However, Sidious reveals that he has no intention of killing Maul, remarking that he has other uses for his former apprentice.
Rebels[]
An elderly Maul appears in the season 2 finale of Star Wars Rebels.[1] Tracked by an Inquisitor named the Eighth Brother, he has become stranded on the ancient Sith world of Malachor, where he is discovered by Ezra Bridger among the ruins. Introducing himself as "Old Master" and seeking revenge for Sidious' actions against himself and his family, Maul leads Ezra into an ancient Sith temple, where they discover a holocron that Maul claims can give them the knowledge needed to defeat the Sith. After recovering it by gaining Ezra's trust, the two find Ezra's master Kanan Jarrus and former Jedi Ahsoka Tano locked in battle with the Eighth Brother and two more, the Fifth Brother and the Seventh Sister, who have been pursuing the rebels for some time. Maul-having cast aside the title of Darth-then reveals a new lightsaber disguised as a component of a walking stick and joins the Jedi in battling their enemies.
After the Inquisitors retreat, Maul convinces the Jedi that he can be trusted due to his shared antagonism of the Sith, and expresses his conviction that he lacks the ability to defeat Darth Vader on his own. Working together, he and the Jedi ascend towards the top of the Sith temple and successfully defeat the three Inquisitors, two of whom Maul eliminates personally while the third dies trying to escape. It is then that Maul reveals his intention to take Ezra as his apprentice, having already tricked him into activating the temple, which is in fact a Sith battle station. After blinding Kanan, Maul briefly duels Ahsoka before facing Kanan again, only to be knocked off the temple's edge by the crippled Jedi Knight. However, he is later shown departing Malachor in one of the Inquisitors' TIE Fighters after the temple's destruction and Ahsoka's apparent demise at the hands of Vader.
