When Will Darth Vader Fight Maul?

A Highly Anticipated Showdown!

By Culture SlatePublished 2 years ago • 3 min read

It's a matchup that fans have been wanting for years. Ever since the premiere of The Phantom Menace back in 1999, the Star Wars fandom has been arguing over who would win in a fight; Darth Vader or Maul. With wildly different lightsabers, powers, and fighting styles, Vader and Maul would surely be one of the most unique and entertaining fights in the history of Star Wars. Though up until Season 4 of The Clone Wars, it was a purely fantastical one. Prior to the creation of the animated series, Maul's official death was when he was bisected by Obi-Wan Kenobi, which occurred while Anakin Skywalker was still a child. So at the time, a duel between Vader and Maul seemed impossible. That was until 2001 when a Star Wars comic gifted fans with that very duel.

Star Wars: Resurrection was a 48 page comic story published by Dark Horse Comics in 2001. Written by Ron Marz and penciled by Rick Leonardi, the comic follows Darth Vader as he is confronted by a group known as the Prophets of the Dark Side. The prophets believe Vader is not worthy of being Darth Sidious' apprentice and have resurrected Darth Maul to kill him and take his place. Vader and Maul then engage in a ferocious duel, in which they grievously injure and insult one another. Ultimately, the duel ends with Vader killing Maul once more, before Sidious arrives to kill off the prophets and return to Coruscant with his worthy apprentice. As a part of the Legends continuity, Resurrection is no longer in Star Wars canon. But that didn't stop fans from making various fan films and animations depicting a possible fight between these iconic villains. Though with Maul's story in The Clone Wars, the odds of such a fight happening have grown considerably.

Maul's official resurrection in The Clone Wars' fourth season changed the Star Wars galaxy forever, with the famous Zabrak now playing a crucial role in the prequel era and its culmination, as seen in the Siege of Mandalore arc from the show's seventh season. His part in the saga was further solidified by the creation of Crimson Dawn; a crime syndicate led by Maul that has become a major player in the galaxy's criminal underworld in the time between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

With this in mind, would it truly be out of the realm of possibility that Vader and Maul would cross paths during this time? We do know that Maul is still set on destroying his former master. If Maul decided to use Crimson Dawn to attack his old mentor directly, this would put him right in Vader's crosshairs as the Dark Lord would have to defend his Emperor. If not that, then perhaps Crimson Dawn could simply cause trouble for the Empire, motivating Sidious to send Vader after Maul and finally get him out of his metaphorical hair.

At this point, for me at least, a confrontation between Vader and Maul seems practically inevitable. Such widely recognized villains getting into an epic duel is too good of an opportunity to pass on. The only questions now are when and where? If those rumors about an animated Maul series being in the works are indeed true, we may very well see it happen there. Or who knows? Maybe they'll find a way to work it into The Bad Batch. Wherever and whenever the fight does occur, my hope is that they don't rush into it and make sure that it has the proper buildup, weight, and gravitas that such a fateful duel deserves.

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