‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’: Director Deborah Chow Denies Darth Maul Was Ever Part Of The ‘Star Wars’ Mini-Series

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, there had been a rumor that “Star Wars” wasn’t done with Darth Maul. OK, not that long ago, but earlier this year The Hollywood Reporter reported a story that said an earlier version of the new “Star Wars” show “Obi-Wan Kenobi” included Darth Maul, the Sith Lord turned criminal syndicate leader.

The character was resurrected after his death in “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace” and was last seen at the end of “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” Maul was supposedly the limited series’ villain before Hayden Christensen‘s Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and his Jedi hunting Inquisitors from “Star Wars: Rebels” were added, giving fans live-action incarnations of those animated characters. However, a pretty reliable source says otherwise.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi” director Deborah Chow (“The Mandalorian“) refutes that Darth Maul was ever part of the show while speaking with Total Film and essentially states that Dave Filoni had already covered Maul’s story on the animation side with his death in “Star Wars Rebels.“

READ MORE: ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Director Deborah Chow Says Darth Vader “Isn’t Fully Formed Yet” In Her Series

“As long as I’ve been involved, we’ve never had Darth Maul in any of it. Dave [Filoni] did a beautiful job of telling that story already,” she told Total Film in their latest issue, alluding to season three of “Star Wars Rebels” where Maul and Obi-Wan face off for one final duel.

“For anybody trying to tell a story in the middle of these two trilogies, there were only certain elements that made sense in where [Obi-Wan] is,” Chow added.

The director continued to explain why Darth Vader was chosen over Darth Maul.

“With a lot of the legacy aspects, the decision to bring Vader into it was not made lightly. We’re 10 years after ‘Revenge of The Sith.’ Where is Obi-Wan’s starting place? What has been important to him in his life? Anakin and Vader are a huge and very profound part of his life. We ended up feeling that he made sense in telling this story. And Vader casts such a dark shadow in this, that to have Maul as well, it might be a little bit much,” said Chow.

It’s unclear if Maul was potentially part of another project that never came together leading to this confusion or if Chow is simply trying to dodge the latest claims of continuous project retooling by Lucasfilm that has long plagued the Disney era of the franchise.

Here is the series’ synopsis:

The story begins 10 years after the dramatic events of “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his greatest defeat—the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi” debuts on May 27 and Total Film also included new stills from the Disney+ series that you can see below.