By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
In The Phantom Menace, X-Men veteran Ray Park played Darth Maul, and his mysterious villain quickly became the focus of the entire Prequel Trilogy. However, as die-hard fans know, Park isn't actually the best actor to bring this Sith warrior to life. That honor goes to Darth Maul voice actor Sam Witwer, who explains why he loves seeing his hero die at the hands of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the video below. Rebels.
Sam Witwer and the Death of Darth Maul
If you don't have Sam Witwer's near-encyclopedic knowledge of Star Wars, you may need a quick refresher… in short, The Clone Wars the cartoon confirmed it Darth Maul had cheated death and the character continued to torment our heroes Rebels spinoff. In one episode Rebelswe get a rematch between Maul and an older Obi-Wan Kenobi, but the fight ends almost immediately with Qui-Gon Jinn's former apprentice 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 explained why the fight was so perfect.
According to Sam Witwer, Darth Maul's death is due to Obi-Wan Kenobi coming of age and effectively trapping the Sith warrior. The voice actor noted that if you look closely at Kenobi's movements, he moves with different lightsabers from young Obi-Wan to older Obi-Wan. Witwer sees this cycling as the old man's way of realizing his change as both a warrior and a Jedi Master, so he refuses to wield his lightsaber. Ewan McGregor Alec caught it like Guinness.
The last lightsaber position held by a Jedi is that of his 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 a familiar stance, the Sith go for a repeat performance. In short, he thinks Obi-Wan copied what Qui-Gon brought back The Phantom Menace and tries to respond accordingly.
However, Kenobi has had almost twenty years to think about what killed his old master, and he perfectly opposes Maul's actions. Maul got so close that his enemy was able to land an almost instant kill move as his trick made it a short fight. Aside from Kenobi's deception and subtle actions, Sam Witwer believes that Darth Maul's death was due to his underestimation of his opponent.
In the words of the actor, the Sith sees his enemy as a “desperate man hiding in the desert”, a “coward” and a “failed Jedi”. Witwer argues that Maul's only defeat is that “this is a Jedi Master on active duty, and if he's that good, he should be the most important guard post in the galaxy.” It shows Kenobi protecting the Chosen, and thanks to his hatred of Palpatine, he has an interesting perspective on this famous Jedi prophecy: “he will avenge us.”
Aside from Ray Park and George Lucas, few people have more insight into the life and death of Darth Maul than Sam Witwer. His amazing perspective on the character's final duel might not be enough to appease fans who thought the fight was too short, but it certainly gave us a new way to look at one of our favorite Star Wars scenes. Between Witwer words and relatively high quality Ahsokaone thing is clear: there's never been a better time to revisit Rebels and experience the best a galaxy far, far away has to offer.
