Why 'Star Wars' Villain Darth Maul Is the Best Thing (By Far!) in 'The Phantom Menace'
The Phantom Menace will likely never be anyone’s favorite Star Wars movie (and if it is, please explain why in the comments — we really wanna know). But it does hold the distinction of introducing the most detested and the most beloved prequel character into George Lucas’s far, far away galaxy. In one corner, you have Jar Jar Binks, the Gungan goofball who continues to be held up as the poster child for everything that’s wrong with Episodes I-III. But his awfulness is balanced by the awesomeness that is Darth Maul, the Sith Lord who serves as a lightsaber-wielding enforcer for titular Menace, soon-to-be emperor Palpatine, a.k.a. Darth Sidious. Although his total amount of screen time in the film clocks in at just under 15 minutes, Darth Maul achieves some of the same seismic impact that another Darth — as in Vader — made during his first-ever onscreen appearance, striding aboard the Tantive IV to capture Princess Leia in the original Star Wars. Maul’s shadow also looms large over the next generation of Star Wars baddies like Kylo Ren and Captain Phasma who will be introduced in The Force Awakens, which blasts into theaters Thursday night.
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Just like Darth Vader, Darth Maul’s appearance has a lot to do with his popularity. In place of Vader’s samurai-and-Nazi inspired look, Phantom Menace designer Iain McCaig has said that drew on his fear of clowns in creating Maul’s immediately eye-catching red-and-black facepaint. His choice of weapon — a double-bladed red lightsaber — is another part of his appeal, blowing people’s minds from the moment he double-tapped the activation stud in the earliest Menace teaser trailer. Maul’s alter ego, martial artist Ray Park, provides the final piece of the puzzle. Star Wars legend has it that Benicio Del Toro was originally going to play the part, but turned it down after his dialogue was trimmed to the bone. Meanwhile, Park had been brought on as a stuntman, but reportedly made such an impression on Lucas that he got promoted to featured player. Park’s vocal chops apparently weren’t up to snuff, however. Just as James Earl Jones dubbed over David Prowse’s Darth Vader dialogue, British actor Peter Serafinowicz was tapped to intone Maul’s three lines of dialogue. (Serafinowicz shared his less-than-fond memories of that experience on a podcast back in October.)
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Given the wooden dialogue that pervades The Phantom Menace — and the prequel trilogy as a whole — its just as well that Darth Maul expresses himself through action rather than words. Park’s physicality is marvelous to watch, a human contrast to the bluescreen-heavy action happening around him. And his fighting acumen demands that his co-stars raise their game as well; the climactic Jedi vs. Sith battle that pits Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon and Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan against Maul is arguably the finest lightsaber duel in any of the Star Wars movies to date, more dynamic and fluid than the father-and-son battles from The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Throughout the nearly five-minute sequence, the overmatched duo of McGregor and Neeson are clearly fighting to just keep up with Park, making it one of the rare instances where you genuinely believe the good guys might lose. (And, in fact, one of them does.)
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Watch part of the duel:
Maul mania didn’t abate with the character’s apparent death at the end of Phantom Menace. Instantly embraced by fans, the character found his way into novels and comic books that flashed back to his early years as a Sith-in-training, and he also popped up in the Clone Wars cartoon series, where it’s revealed that he survived being carved in two by Obi-Wan’s single-bladed lightsaber and replaced his lower half with a set of cyborg legs. Not for nothing, but since Clone Wars is still considered current canon — unlike most ancillary Star Wars tales, it survived the Disney transition — that means he’s still technically in play for any future Episodes or, better still, an installment of the Star Wars anthology series that Disney is launching with Rogue One in 2016. At this year’s Star Wars Celebration, Park said that he was raring to don the red-and-black make-up again, with a few extra enhancements this time. “If Darth Maul [is] coming back, he should be topless, tattooed, bigger horns, robotic legs!” That would make him a Force to be reckoned with.
Watch Darth Maul in action:
