Best Actor Darth Maul Loved To See Him Die

By Chris Snellgrove
| Published 33 seconds ago

In The Phantom Menace, X-Wed veteran Ray Park brought Darth Maul to life, and his mysterious villain quickly became the highlight of the entire Prequel Trilogy. However, as die-hard fans know, Park is not the best actor to bring this Sith warrior to life. That honor goes to Sam Witwer, Darth Maul’s voice actor who, in the video below, explains why he loves his character’s death at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi in Rebels.

Sam Witwer And The Death Of Darth Maul

If you don’t have Sam Witwer’s almost encyclopedic knowledge of Star Wars, you may need a quick refresher… in short, the Clone Wars A cartoon confirmed that Darth Maul has cheated death, and the character continued to plague our heroes in the Rebels spinoff. In one episode of Rebelswe get a rematch between Maul and a much older Obi-Wan Kenobi, but the fight ends almost immediately with Qui-Gon Jinn’s former pupil killing this Sith once and for all. Many fans complained that this fight was short and ultimately disappointing, but in this video from a fan convention, Witwer broke down why the fight was so perfect.

According to Sam Witwer, Darth Maul’s death came from the fact that Obi-Wan Kenobi embraced the maturity of age and effectively lured the Sith warrior into a trap. The voice actor pointed out that if you watch Kenobi’s movements carefully, he cycles through different lighting stances, effectively going from a young Obi-Wan to an older Obi-Wan. Witwer sees this cycling as the old man’s way of realizing that he has changed as a warrior and Jedi Master, which is why he goes from holding his lightsaber as Ewan McGregor made to catch it as Alec Guinness did.

The final lightsaber stance a Jedi takes is the stance of his own master, Qui-Gon Jinn. As Sam Witwer points out, Darth Maul caused the death of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s old master, and when Kenobi takes the familiar stance, the Sith go for a repeat performance. In short, he thinks Obi-Wan is copying what Qui-Gon did back in The Phantom Menace and tries to respond accordingly.

However, Kenobi has had nearly two decades to ponder what killed his old master, and he perfectly counters Maul’s moves. It was his deception that caused this to be such a short fight, as Maul got so close that his enemy could pull off a killing move almost immediately. Beyond Kenobi’s tricks and fancy moves, however, Sam Witwer believes that Darth Maul’s death was caused by the fact that he underestimated his opponent.

In the actor’s words, the Sith sees his enemy as “a desperate man hiding in a desert,” someone who is a “coward” and a “failed Jedi.” Witwer claims that Maul only realizes in his defeat that “this is an active-duty Jedi Master, and if he’s this good, this must be the most important guard post in the galaxy.” He clocks that Kenobi is protecting the Chosen One, and thanks to his hatred of Palpatine, he has an interesting perspective on this famous Jedi prophecy: “he will avenge us.”

Other than Ray Park and George Lucas, few people have as much insight into the life and death of Darth Maul as Sam Witwer. His fascinating perspective on the character’s final showdown may not be enough to appease fans who think the battle was too short, but it certainly gave us a new way to look at one of our favorite Star Wars scenes . Between Witwer’s words and the relatively high quality of the Ahsokaone thing is clear: there has never been a better time to rewatch Rebels and experience the best that a galaxy far, far away has to offer.