'Star Wars Rebels' Originally Had Darth Maul Kill Off This Main Character

When Darth Maul was killed off in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, it got mixed reactions. Some who expected him to be a villain throughout the entire prequel trilogy were disappointed. However, Maul got another chance on the screen when George Lucas decided to retcon his death and bring him back through the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series around the time that The Phantom Menace was rereleased for 3D in theaters. (We have learned within the last few months that Lucas at some point intended to have Maul be a villain in his sequel trilogy, before he let other people take the reigns.) The Maul of the animated series has gained a lot of praise from fans who see more depth in the character as a result.

Of course, when The Clone Wars was initially cancelled and stopped airing on Cartoon Network back in the day, Maul was one of the threads that was left dangling. Even the sixth season, which ended up on Netflix, did not touch upon this. The next step in his journey was seen in the comic book Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir, and then it was unclear when he would be seen again. With the sequel trilogy going in a different direction, the next place for Maul was in Star Wars Rebels, a Disney XD animated series in which other characters from The Clone Wars had already returned. Appearing in the season 2 finale "Twilight of the Apprentice," Maul tries to make Ezra Bridger his new apprentice. He ends up blinding Ezra's master Kanan Jarrus via lightsaber. However, Kanan was not always intended to survive this confrontation. At one point, the idea was to have Maul kill off Kanan in this episode, as Kanan's voice actor Freddie Prinze Jr. recently revealed to Collider.

"Dave and I talked about me dying at Maul’s hand, at the end of Season 2, but then the same people who didn’t want me for the project suddenly said, 'No, he can’t die. He has to be in every episode.'"

It sounds like the people who initially were not sure have hiring Freddie Prinze Jr. for the series were won over by him over time and did not want to see him go too soon. The actor also brought up which episode of the series was his favorite.

"The 'Trials of the Darksaber' episode was my favorite episode out of all of them... The fight with Maul getting blinded was special. Teaching Sabine was special."

Apparently, some have believed that Freddie Prinze Jr. had a lot of input on how his character should be killed off. However, he points the credit to the other people behind the scenes.

"The death, which everyone gives me the most credit for, has nothing to do with me. There’s no dialogue there. That’s all Dave, the animators, music, and people more talented than me that made you think it was me."

Of course, Kanan would end up outliving Maul, who meets his fate at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the episode "Twin Suns" toward the end of season 3. And Kanan would not meet his own fate until toward the end of the fourth and final season. (He would later pop up in other places earlier in the timeline.) It just goes to show that Kanan Jarrus made a huge enough impact to warrant him lasting on the show as long as he did. And in the end, he dies making a poignant sacrifice to help the people whom he loves. Kanan Jarrus' sacrifice ends up being a noble one, and he has gone down as a fan favorite across the Star Wars fandom. It seems unlikely that he would make the jump to live-action, given his fate, but Kanan Jarrus will be long remembered by the fans.

Written By Steven Shinder

Source(s): The Direct

Syndicated From Culture Slate

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