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Solo : A Star Wars Storyhas the unsound scene inStar Warssince Disney bought the enfranchisement in 2012 : Darth Maul ’s cameo , a stunningly confound creative option that hurt the otherwise unattackable standalone . Soloisn’t devoid of trouble , sure , but it bring forth a circle right - often against the grain of expectation . Alden Ehrenreich is wonderful as a younger Han , evoking the character not imitating Harrison Ford , and for all the talking about the firing of Phil Lord & Chris Miller from the projection , Ron Howard ’s reshootsand tonal modification are grueling to spot .
Almost mocking the fact that pre - release problems turned out to not have an impact , most ofSolo : A Star Wars Story ’s most controversial chemical element in reality come from the script that has been militantly protected during the photographic film ’s tortured development . The full project - which originated from George Lucas before he sell Lucasfilm - was greenlit by Disney CEO Bob Iger establish on the extremely controversial style by whichHan gets his surname(he has no people , so is " solo " ) , although that ’s nothing on the bighearted surprise .
Related:Solo: A Star Wars Story Deserves Better Review Scores
Near the end of the film , Han ’s puerility love Qi’ra betrays him for her unavoidable lifespan of criminal offense , implicating the scoundrel for the murder of crime lord Dryden Vos and pledging herself to syndicate Crimson Dawn ’s dependable baddie , Maul . Yes , Darth Maul , presumed dead by many afterStar war Episode I : The Phantom Menacebut resurrected inStar war : The Clone Warsand given a tragical culmination to his arc inStar Wars Rebelsis the Palpatine of the history , pulling the strings from afar . Per author Jon Kasdan , while the view was the last part of the movie shoot and the grapheme no now arrange , it was part of hisoriginal idea forSolo .
We ’re reaching a point in blockbuster movie theater where a " bad raider " is now treated as a requirement : a shock cameo ( Red Skull inAvengers : Infinity War ) , irregular death ( Snoke inStar warfare : The Last Jedi ) , earthly concern - shattering villain twist ( The Vulture is the father of Peter Parker ’s high school peach inSpider - Man : Homecoming ) or a franchise realigning twist ( Deckard had a youngster and it is n’t K inBlade Runner 2049 ) . This has provided sight of irritable post - movie word and plug in our spoiler - obsessed culture , but is beginning to become more certificate of indebtedness . Maul is definitelySolo ’s shock ace , but while he is an undeniably cool design with a ethnical impact that hold his antecedently minimal self-aggrandizing - screen bearing , in practice this is where thing topple from fun reveal to story - damage cellular inclusion .
Darth Maul’s Cameo Hurts Han’s Arc In Solo
Before going deep into the problems with bringing Darth Maul into a Han Solo movie , permit ’s first put praise on the one unchallenged achiever here : casting . Maul is played by Ray Park , the stuntman who portrayed the Sith Lord inThe Phantom Menaceand voiced by Sam Witwer , who ’s voiced the role inThe Clone WarsandRebels . The fear put into accuracy is commendable . However , almost like a shot we have a dissension . Park ’s Maul found menace in how he stalked his prey , whereas the TV reading was a much more maniac bearing , manipulating and think up his own schema . TheSoloversion is in spades the latter , something that feels foreign : Witwer ’s words coming out of Park ’s live - activity oral fissure creates a barrier - perhaps not as challengingly thick as CGI Leia and Tarkin , but definitely there .
Unfortunately , even take this compound take , the panorama itself does n’t ferment . Maul is held back for an unmasking reveal , conduce to a teasing buildup that comes suddenly , and once he ’s disclose there ’s a begging of importance that is n’t reflected in its pedestrian fashion ; he is n’t part of this story and so has no bearing beyond the blow . Him Force pulling the lightsaber as some vague form of intimidation is the last nail , a moment of bait on top of decoy that seems to be only to maintain a saber ignition in everyStar Warsfilm .
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However , it ’s what Maul ’s visual aspect intend to Han where the real problems get up . Solo : A Star Wars Storyfor the most part dollar bill concern it was going to be box - tick foot race through the fiber ’s origins - all of that stuff is there , sure , but the arc that Ehrenreich goes on is more one of detect a berth . He come out out want to get of Corellia and after being split from Qi’ra is obsessed with a reunification . It ’s only after betrayal from her and mentor Beckett that he realizes she was just an interior ejection of what he really wanted , with him and Chewie flying off atSolo ’s endrepresenting a grasping of his own lot . It ’s a nuanced take on Han , one that makes him simultaneously rougher and more relatable than he ’s ever been , and it ’s testament to all involved that it ’s pulled off without much jolt .
Maul ’s cameo pops up slap bang in the eye of that . The shot comes right before Han ’s showdown with Beckett , so when the unspoken battle and first shot cum , they ’re underwritten by the residuary jolt that a character even those aware of his survival is back on the theatre screen . That our supporter shoot one of the movie ’s main character in a no - way - out showdown is robbed of its impact by a lover - bait cameo . Worse , it override much of what Qi’ra ’s betrayal represents ; it ’s the last straw for Han and something truly tragic for her , but an alliance with Maul puts focus on where she ’s going over what she ’s result behind .
Page 2:Maul Doesn’t Fit In the Current Star Wars Franchise
Maul’s Star Wars Story Is Over
The most common justification for Maul ’s presence inSolo : A Star Wars Storyis the events ofThe Clone WarsandRebelsthat saw the fictitious character resurrected and evolved . For all his menace inEpisode I , Darth Maul was fundamentally some cool - see acrobatics , whereas what he became is a figure so tragical he ’s even beenpositively compare to Darth Vader . And that ’s the problem with putting him inSolo : his bow is over .
The Clone Warsleft Maul - as it did many aspects - unresolved , with his Shadow Collective disband and his hope of vote down Kenobi and Palpatine unexplored thanks to greater write up concerns . Rebels pluck up with him almost two decades later , with Maul adjudicate to manipulate Sith Holocrons into finding a fashion to overcome his former Master that led to him discovering Kenobi was still alive . This culminate in a last confrontation where the exiled Jedi effortlessly drop his foe , with Maul dying in Obi - Wan ’s countersign comforted by his life - prospicient opposition ’s faith inLuke Skywalker being the Chosen One .
Related: Star Wars: A Complete History Of Darth Maul
There is evidently a big gap between two shows where Maul has n’t been explore in any form , but what crucially power the theatrical role has already been . TheSoloappearance undoes some of those swing threads fromThe Clone Warsand extends his deplorable organisational connections overshadowing the Force focus , but essentially fill a col that did n’t need plugging . It establish a remain front from a part whose aim and end we already make love , and so any subsequent appearance needs take a chance being as pointless as this one .
It ’s possible that , asSolowas originally written as coming straight offThe Force AwakensinRogue One ’s December 2016 discharge slot , that this would have tally good : Maul returned toRebelsin early 2016 , so hisSolocameo would have been right in the center of his last good-bye , making for some degree of synergized storytelling . Although , even then there ’s an authoritative gulf .
Maul’s Cameo Is Teasing Nothing
The future of this is what pull in Darth Maul ’s cameo so perplexing . When Marvel teases a character likeBlack Panther inIron gentleman 2or Thanos inThe Avengers , there ’s a sentience that , even if something is n’t explicitly in the study now , it will be paid off . That does not exist with Maul , despite his scene ’s nature being very much like an MCU post - credits scene .
The immediate suggestion is that he ’s there to set up up the long - mootedObi - Wan Kenobifilm , something that Ray Park has allegedly comment on . However , due to the tightness ofStar Warscanon , that would want essentially remakingRebels , thus contribute Maul a small character in a much big story . And while it would certainly be thematically strong having an aging Obi - Wan facing down his eq of the Jedi test , it would still be a bit part and - crucially - not all that connected toSolo . The timeline just does n’t allow it : y the time of that scrap , Crimson Dawn is in Maul ’s past , meaning all the Qi’ra teasing would be for nothing .
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So is it forSolo 2 ? TheBoba Fettmovie ? A Jabba the Hutt solo film?Maul : A Star Wars Storywhere the entire circumstance is reliant on TV show ( or subsequent explainer knowledge ) ? It could be any or none . The future ofStar Warsin generalmay not be as in question followingSolo ’s assorted reception as some critic would hint , but the future of the anthology series and specifically the original trilogy character spinoffs possibly is . There ’s no sign of where the Maul moment , built to pester , is going to go , or if it will ever be resolve at all . As neat as it can be to have a multi - media canon , a major motion picture having one of its biggest dangling threads resolve in a book year after the fact is invariably confounded storytelling .
Page 3:Is Maul The Worst Disney Star Wars Moment?
Maul Is Fan-Bait…
Maul brings nothing but a distraction to whatSolois trying to do and there ’s little future tense to him in the Star Wars dealership beyond . There is , quite simply , no purpose to having that graphic symbol seem in this movie . It ’s not that Maul ca n’t re-emerge active in the movies per se , but it ’s that it call for to have a reason to exist .
Had it been Darth Vader or the Emperor , for example , there ’d be just as much justification - Crimson Dawn ’s name can link to Sith color ’s as much as a Dathormir ’s sky , and regal incumbrance better explains the repeated links between the astronomical Scheol and the Empire - and something to build on easily within the current canon way . Even someone like Prince Xizor , a primal Expanded Universe kingpin made illustrious byShadows of the Empire , would have been a neat accession that upsets the current ofSololess . Of course , he would n’t express the need mainstream weight , and that ’s where the inwardness of the issue is .
What Darth Maul inSoloappears to be is Lucasfilm attempting to replicate the fan - pleasing nature of Darth Vader ’s hallway aspect fromRogue One : A Star Wars Story ; a beloved , iconic legacy fibre making an unpredictable appearance . With that vantage point , there ’s some logic to the choice : Boba Fett andJabba the Huttmay be more obvious forSolo , but that ’s incisively the ground not to admit either , and with them removed the mere , vaguely canonically sound pick is actually Maul . But that seeming requirement of include such a scene is the problem : not every movie need a jar wrench , and by making this one so reliant on pure and baseless lover help it does n’t really offer up up much .
…But Fan-Bait That Doesn’t Offer Fans Anything
Indeed , no matter what creed ofStar Warsfan you may associate with , the aim of the tease sense off . If you ’re a cosmopolitan audience member who ’s never watchedThe Clone Wars , it ’s a confounding challenge to the recognized timeline ( assuming you recognise it as Maul ): the immediate suggestion is that the pic is really pre - The Phantom Menace , not that the villain survive . If you ’re vaguely aware of his paying back , then this feels like a tease with far - get hold of fork yet ultimately can not thanks to theRebelsresolution . And if you ’re fully up to hasten with the current state of the canyon , you recognize that while it make some signified if you squint , it does n’t really mean much .
The only genuine positive this offers is a show that Lucasfilm does n’t just consider theTV shows as canonbut is OK with major aspect of them coming into the movies unheralded . The opportunity for such multimedia system storytelling is definitely exciting , but the pointed nature of Maul ’s cameo and its lack of any synergizing of narrative means at the second it ’s only going as far as upstage prow shots .
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And so we ’ve reach Disney ’s nadir . Leia in distance , Maz ’s holograph , Broom Boyand more decisions inThe Last Jedimay have garner the ire of manyStar Warsfans , but at least there is a clear , defendable reason for them that can be understood if not appreciated . That does n’t be for Maul . For most of its outpouring , the Mouse House - possess Lucasfilm has avoid such blatantly obvious fan - bait , or when it has there ’s been an dear exertion to make it more within the report . Here they ’re go directly against that for no clear short- or longsighted - term gain , highjacking an unrelated account as they do so .
The hope will be that Maul ’s appearance is given some greater purpose down the rail line that justify him coming back ( again ) , but it ’s indecipherable what that is at present . And , so , we ’re impart withSolo : A Star Wars Storyin desperate pauperization of a devotee - edit .
Next:Solo: The Darth Maul Reveal Was Perfect
