Darth Maul, also known simply as Maul, is a character in the Star Wars franchise created by George Lucas. He first appeared in the prequel film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999). Maul returned in the animated television series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–2014; 2020), Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018) and Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord (2026) as well as the standalone film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). Lucas had intended for Maul to feature in the sequel film trilogy, but these plans were discarded when Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012.
Maul is introduced as a Zabrak from Dathomir and a powerful Sith Lord, having been trained in the ways of the dark side of the Force as Darth Sidious's first apprentice. He mortally wounds Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn during the Battle of Naboo before being bisected by Qui-Gon's Padawan, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Fueled by his hatred, Maul survives and is driven insane until his brother, Savage Opress, finds him over a decade later during the Clone Wars. Once his mind and body are restored with magic and cybernetics by the Nightsister Mother Talzin, Maul becomes an independent criminal mastermind and endures as Obi-Wan's archenemy. In his obsessive quest for revenge against Obi-Wan, Maul unites various crime syndicates under his leadership, orchestrates a takeover of Mandalore, and murders Obi-Wan's lover, Duchess Satine Kryze. Despite being captured by Sidious for becoming a rival, Maul escapes before the rise of the Galactic Empire. He renounces his Sith title of "Darth", rebuilds his criminal organization, and manipulates Ezra Bridger into helping him find Obi-Wan on Tatooine, where the two old rivals have a final confrontation that ends in Maul's death.
The character was portrayed by Ray Park and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz for his initial appearance in The Phantom Menace. Park reprised the role in Solo, where he was dubbed by Sam Witwer, who provided Maul's voice for his animated appearances. Maul has also appeared in various forms of media in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, including novels, comic books, and video games. Despite his limited screen time in The Phantom Menace as well as the film's mixed reception, Maul has become a fan favorite in the franchise and a widely recognised villain in popular culture for his intimidating appearance and double-bladed lightsaber. His resurgence and expanded characterization in The Clone Wars further heightened his popularity within the Star Wars fandom and earned him a cult following.
Contents
Characteristics
Concept and creation
Maul was characterized by The Phantom Menace director George Lucas as a thing of nightmares. An early concept had Maul a masked figure, something that could rival Darth Vader. Later, concept artist Iain McCaig started masking an illustration of production designer Gavin Bocquet in tape. Both McCaig and Lucas liked the result, described as "a kind of Rorschach pattern". The final drawing had McCaig's own face, with the skin removed, and some Rorschach experimentation (dropping ink onto paper, folding it in half then opening). McCaig stated the tattoo design was inspired by facial musculature stating "If you were to strip the flesh off your face right now...the muscles would form a Darth Maulish pattern."
Maul's head originally had feathers, based on prayer totems, but the Creature Effects crew led by Nick Dudman interpreted those feathers as horns, modifying his features into those common in popular depictions of the devil.
His clothing was also modified, from a tight body suit with a muscle pattern to the Sith robe based on samurai pleats, because the lightsaber battles involved much jumping, spinning, running, and rolling.
George Lucas decided to resurrect Darth Maul for The Clone Wars after developing the character of Savage Opress. Series co-creator Dave Filoni initially responded to Lucas's idea as unrealistic, because, "It's over. He's cut in half. How does that work?" According to Filoni, Lucas replied, "I don't know. Figure it out."
Portrayal
Darth Maul was portrayed by actor and martial artist Ray Park in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace and Solo: A Star Wars Story. Peter Serafinowicz provided the character's voice in The Phantom Menace. Sam Witwer replaced Serafinowicz when the character returned in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and reprised the role in numerous subsequent projects, most notably in Star Wars Rebels, Solo and Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord. Gregg Berger, Clint Bajakian, Jess Harnell, Stephen Stanton, and Lee Tockar have also voiced him in other appearances in less prominent capacities.
Lightsaber
Darth Maul is known for his use of a red double-bladed lightsaber, which he wields similar to a Bō, or staff. In Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, the prop for his lightsaber was made of resin, cast over a metal rod to which the two blades were attached.
Vehicles
Darth Maul pilots a modified FC-20 speeder bike called Bloodfin and his personal starship, a heavily modified Star Courier called Scimitar (also known as the Sith Infiltrator). After his defeat during the Battle of Naboo, his former master reclaims the ship.
Appearances
Films
In his first appearance, Darth Maul is sent by his master Darth Sidious (Ian McDiarmid) to capture Queen Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman) of Naboo to force her to sign a treaty that would legitimize the Trade Federation's invasion of the planet. Maul manages to track her starship to Tatooine, where he briefly engages Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), who has been assigned to protect the Queen. After escaping Tatooine, Qui-Gon concludes that Maul is a Sith Lord and informs the Jedi Council on Coruscant of the Sith's return. In the film's climax, Maul duels Qui-Gon and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). He is able to kill Qui-Gon and knock Obi-Wan down a shaft, but Kenobi propels himself out of the pit and uses Qui-Gon's lightsaber to bisect Maul, sending the two parts of his body falling down the shaft.
At the end of Solo, Maul (Ray Park) is revealed as the mastermind behind the crime syndicate Crimson Dawn. After killing Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany), whom Maul had appointed as his figurehead, smuggler Qi'ra (Emilia Clarke) tells Maul that Vos was betrayed and murdered by Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson) and his accomplices, neglecting to mention Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich) and Chewbacca's (Joonas Suotamo) involvement. Seeming to believe her, Maul commands Qi'ra to meet with him on Dathomir and ignites his lightsaber, telling her that they will work more closely from that point forward.
In George Lucas's unused outlines for the Star Wars sequel trilogy, Maul was intended to serve as the main antagonist. The cybernetic Maul would have become "the godfather of crime in the universe" and the master of Darth Talon.
Animated series
Prior to Maul's proper return in The Clone Wars animated series, Lucas considered revealing that Revenge of the Sith villain General Grievous was actually Maul in disguise.
In season three of the series, Maul is revealed to have once been a member of the Nightbrothers clan from the planet Dathomir. Mother Talzin, the leader of the Nightsister witches and Maul's biological mother, sends her other son Savage Opress to find Maul, who has been living in the outer rim since he was bisected and presumably killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi over a decade prior.
In season four, Maul is found by Savage on the junkyard planet of Lotho Minor. Having been stranded there and driven insane, Maul uses the Force to construct a spider-like apparatus to replace his severed legs. Savage brings Maul back to Dathomir, where Talzin uses Nightsister magick to restore his mind and outfit him with a pair of cybernetic legs. Seeking revenge against Obi-Wan, Maul goes on a killing spree to bait and capture the Jedi with Savage's help, but Asajj Ventress comes to Obi-Wan's aid and helps him escape.
In season five, Maul takes Savage as his apprentice and begins building his own criminal empire. The two travel to Florrum in a bid to seize the territory of Weequay pirates led by Hondo Ohnaka. The Jedi track them down and Maul duels Obi-Wan while Savage fights and kills Adi Gallia. Obi-Wan and Hondo's crew work together to force the brothers to flee in an escape pod. Days later, Maul and Savage are found floating in dead space by the Mandalorian terrorist group Death Watch. Maul joins forces with their leader, Pre Vizsla, to take control of Mandalore and exact revenge against their common enemy, Obi-Wan. They recruit the Black Sun, Pyke Syndicate and Hutt Clan to form a criminal syndicate called the Shadow Collective. Maul engineers Vizsla's rise to power by ordering the crime families to attack Mandalore, allowing the Death Watch to capture them and gain the public's support. However, Vizsla betrays and imprisons Maul and Savage, though they easily break free, and the former challenges Vizsla to a fight for leadership of Mandalore. Maul overpowers Vizsla, beheading him with his own darksaber, and effectively takes over Mandalore, putting disgraced former Prime Minister Almec, whom Satine had imprisoned for corruption, in power as a puppet leader. However, a faction of Death Watch, led by Bo-Katan Kryze, refuse to accept an outsider as their leader, and escape to plan a coup. Maul later masterminds a trap for Obi-Wan, knowing that Satine will contact the Jedi Master for help because of their romantic past. When Obi-Wan arrives on Mandalore, he is quickly captured and forced to watch as Maul executes Satine. Obi-Wan is later freed by Bo-Katan's Death Watch faction.
Comics
In 2017, Marvel released Star Wars: Darth Maul, a 5-issue prequel series centered on Maul before the events of The Phantom Menace. The comic details upon Maul's training under Darth Sidious, and how he was manipulated into hating the Jedi for leading the Sith to near-extinction. The main plot follows Maul's quest to kill his first Jedi, allying himself with several bounty hunters and facing a crime lord along the way.
Maul had his own one-shot comic book within the 2018–19 Age of the Republic miniseries, which depicts short stories of various characters during the Galactic Republic era. In his story, Maul poses as a member of a criminal cartel to kill a Force-sensitive thief for Darth Sidious, and experiences a vision of an alternate life as a peace-keeping Jedi, which he denies, much to Sidious' content. The story takes place shortly before The Phantom Menace.
Dark Horse Comics produced Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir based on the scripts and storyboards of an unproduced four-episode story arc intended for the seventh season of The Clone Wars. The events of the comic are set some time after Maul's defeat at Darth Sidious' hands in the fifth season of the television series, and before his eventual return in the seventh season.
After defeating Maul and killing his brother Savage Opress, Sidious takes him to a Separatist prison, where Count Dooku tortures him for information about the Shadow Collective. Prime Minister Almec arranges Maul's escape and the latter then heads back to Zanbar to command the Death Watch army. However, he is followed by General Grievous and his droids, who battle with Maul and the Mandalorians. While they put up a fierce fight, Maul and his minions are ultimately overwhelmed by the droids. During the battle, Maul tears through the droid ranks and attacks Grievous, but is overpowered and forced to retreat. Afterwards, Maul confers with Mother Talzin and plots to draw out Sidious by capturing Dooku and Grievous. The scheme works, and Talzin is able to restore herself to her physical form, but she sacrifices herself to save Maul. Although Maul escapes with a company of loyal Mandalorians, the Shadow Collective has disintegrated due to the conflict with Sidious, as the Hutts, Pykes, and Black Sun have all abandoned Maul.
Novels
In flashbacks during the novel Star Wars: Ahsoka, it is revealed that during the final days of the Clone Wars, Maul and his forces were besieged on Mandalore by an army of clone troopers led by Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex. During the siege, Maul confronts and duels Ahsoka. Though he proves to be the stronger fighter, the former Jedi outwits him and traps him in a ray shield. However, before Maul can be taken into official custody, Order 66 is enacted and the clone troopers following Ahsoka turn on her, with the exception of Rex. With Rex's life in peril, Ahsoka abandons the chance of killing Maul, allowing the former Sith to escape once again.
The events of this battle were later adapted and altered by the final episodes of the seventh season of The Clone Wars, as described earlier.
Video games
Maul has been featured in a number of Star Wars games, as a boss or a playable character.
Maul would have been the main character of Battle of the Sith Lords, an action-adventure title set before The Phantom Menace that was canceled in 2011.
Legends
With the 2012 acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company, most of the licensed Star Wars novels and comics produced since the original 1977 film Star Wars were rebranded as Star Wars Legends and declared non-canon to the franchise in April 2014.
Darth Maul is a 4-issue comics series published by Dark Horse Comics featuring Maul. The series is set in the shortly before the Battle of Naboo in Episode I – The Phantom Menace. The story follows Maul in his mission to destroy the leadership of the well-feared crime syndicate Black Sun. Maul spends his time serving under Darth Sidious, killing countlessly. His main target in the series is the leader of Black Sun, some time before Prince Xizor takes command of it.
Several sources depict Maul returning from the dead in several different forms. The story "Resurrection" from Star Wars Tales #9 depicts a cult creating a duplicate of Maul as a replacement for Darth Vader, only for Vader to kill him. The story Phantom Menaces in Star Wars Tales #17 (set after Return of the Jedi) depicts Luke Skywalker visiting Maul's home planet of Iridonia in an ambassadorial capacity, where he faces a "solid state hologram" of Maul projected from Maul's salvaged brain as part of a scientist's attempt to recreate Maul as Iridonia's "champion". Luke recognizes the disruption that Maul's existence is causing in the Force, and shuts down the life-support systems keeping the brain alive.
In 2005, Dark Horse Comics published Star Wars: Visionaries, a compilation of non-canonical short comics made by the creators of Revenge of the Sith. One story, "Old Wounds", depicts Maul with longer horns on his head, having survived his bisection at Obi-Wan's hands, with his missing bottom half replaced with cybernetic legs, similar to those of General Grievous (and his eventual revival in The Clone Wars). He follows Obi-Wan throughout the galaxy, finally tracking him down on Tatooine a few years after the events of Revenge of the Sith. Maul taunts Obi-Wan, saying that after he kills him, he will take a toddler-aged Luke Skywalker to his master, Emperor Palpatine. Maul plans to kill Vader and resume his rightful place at Palpatine's side. He ignites his new double-bladed lightsaber and engages Obi-Wan in a duel, but Obi-Wan again bests him in combat, cutting off his opponent's horns. Maul is killed by a blaster bolt to the head from Owen Lars. Obi-Wan thanks Owen, and says he will take Maul's body into the desert and burn it.
Relationships
In popular culture
Since the release of The Phantom Menace, Maul has proven to be a popular character. Whilst the movie received a mixed reaction from fans and critics alike, the character was one of the most highly praised parts of the film, despite his limited screen time. IGN named Maul the 16th greatest Star Wars character, noting, "Of the countless characters to walk in and out of the Star Wars saga, none looks or acts more badass than Maul." C-3PO actor Anthony Daniels said in his memoirs that Darth Maul is still one of his favourite characters in the saga - despite his brief appearance in The Phantom Menace.
Maul-related merchandise was popular among Hasbro Star Wars toy lines, with plastic recreations of his double bladed lightsaber and various action figures in his likeness developed. Maul was the focal point of the marketing campaign surrounding the 2012 re-release of The Phantom Menace, being featured on the packaging for the toy line.
Darth Maul appears as a skater in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 being earned for completing all 54 goals and gaining all gold medals as Tony Hawk.
Darth Maul fan film
A Maul fan film titled Darth Maul: Apprentice was released on YouTube on March 5, 2016. Darth Maul is played by Ben Shammas.
"Darth Maul kids" viral videos
At least two videos of people trying to imitate Darth Maul have gone viral: the 2003 Star Wars Kid, which spawned an internet meme, and another which went viral in December 2017 of an 8-year-old Ontario boy pretending to be Darth Maul and displaying his martial arts skills.