Filmmaker George Lucas’ Star Wars franchise has been one of the most popular works of fiction of all time. The space opera franchise features several unique, interesting, and borderline crazy ideas that have kept the fans of the galaxy far, far away on the edge of their seats for well over four decades.
Despite his penchant for executing risky ideas, one idea from Lucas almost proved too crazy and near impossible to work. While developing The Clone Wars animated series alongside Dave Filoni, Lucas instructed the former to revive one character who had met his definitive end in a previous installment. Here is what Lucas said to Filoni and why the idea should have never worked.
George Lucas Pushed Dave Filoni To Revive Darth Maul For Star Wars: The Clone Wars
George Lucas first introduced the character of Darth Maul in 1999’s The Phantom Menace. However, during the film’s climax, Maul is killed off during a lightsaber duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi, with the latter slicing him in half and pushing him down a ledge. As a result, it seemed like Maul’s death was permanent.
Despite his small screen time, Maul proved extremely popular among fans, leading to Lucas instructing Dave Filoni to resurrect the character for the Clone Wars animated spin-off series. During an appearance at the 2017 Star Wars Celebration in Orlando, Filoni spoke about how Lucas revealed the idea of reviving Maul.
I don’t know, you’ll figure it out.
Filoni revealed that Lucas made the above comment after dropping the bombshell revelation of reviving Maul. Filoni explained that during a story meeting, Lucas approached him with an exciting idea, which turned out to be the return of Maul. However, when Filoni asked for the specifics of the Sith apprentice’s return, Lucas simply asked him to fill out the finer details.
Why George Lucas’ Crazy Darth Maul Idea Should Have Never Worked
During the interview, Filoni revealed that Lucas would often come up with some crazy ideas while working on the Clone Wars. However, despite Lucas’ claims that Filoni would love the idea, they would often turn out to be a challenge for him.
The return of Darth Maul arguably proved to be the toughest of these challenges considering Lucas had himself decided to give the character a definitive ending in The Phantom Menace.
I had to cut him in half to say that this guy’s gone, he’s history, he ain’t coming back.
Lucas made the above statement in an interview with Empire, confirming that Maul’s death in the first film of the prequel trilogy was meant to be permanent. Therefore, it was nearly impossible to figure out a way to revive a character who had been cut in half, and almost definitely died in front of the viewers.
Nonetheless, Filoni figured out a compelling way to bring back the character as Maul is found by his brother Savage Opress. Staying true to his Sith ways, Maul managed to survive through his thirst for vengeance and used the force to create a spider-like apparatus to replace the severed lower half of his body. Thus, Filoni was able to add some emotional weight to Maul’s resurrection, making one of Lucas’ craziest ideas work.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars and other Star Wars films and shows are streaming on Disney+.
