WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7, streaming now on Disney+.
Darth Maul recently reappeared on Star Wars: The Clone Wars, even referencing his cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story. But while the character has had a series of appearances in Star Wars animated properties, including The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, he's yet to return to the big screen (beyond his two-minute cameo in Solo).
In the latest episode of The Clone Wars Season 7, "Together Again," Maul shows up as the leader of the Shadow Collective, an organization of underworld gangs he helped to establish in Season 5 of the show. He bosses around Marg Krim, the leader of the Pyke Syndicate, part of the Collective, and threatens that "Crimson Dawn" will take over if Krim couldn't recover a shipment of spice. This is the link to Maul's appearance in Solo, as the Crimson Dawn was the organization that Maul was the secret leader of during the movie. And according to scriptwriter Jon Kasdan, the name "Crimson Dawn" itself was an oblique reference to Maul's bright-red appearance.
These Star Wars animated shows have served an interesting role in the greater array of Star Wars media. While they flesh out parts of the universe that might never see the light of the silver screen, they can still feel largely inconsequential to fans, when the biggest impact they have on those films is a cameo like the one seen in Solo. This isn't an issue exclusive to Star Wars -- other properties with extended universes that include both movies and television, like Marvel, have often seen TV shows building off of the canon established by movies, while movies at best make a wink and a nudge to acknowledge those shows.
So, if all of these appearances in side-stories are no substitute for Maul appearing in a proper spinoff film, when would that film occur? There's a conspicuous hole in his timeline right now. While it's known what he was doing before the rise of the Galactic Empire (in Clone Wars) and how he finally died (in Rebels), it's largely unknown what he got up to during the heyday of the Empire itself. While Solo makes it clear that he's pulling the strings behind Crimson Dawn, it also shows that he is doing so secretly -- he uses Dryden Vos as the "face" of the organization.
So, there's a clear space in the timeline for a Maul spinoff movie, with him as either the protagonist or antagonist. While protagonist may sound odd (Maul is clearly a "villain"), it's not as far-flung as you might think. Maul's quest in the later parts of the Star Wars timeline has been as a rival to Darth Sidious, and part of his plot on Rebels involves him attempting to destroy the Sith. A movie starring him could easily have a similar quest, potentially teaming him up with more sympathetic heroes.
And the demand is there -- fans have been eager consumers of content featuring Darth Maul. When he first showed up in The Phantom Menace, Maul was the first Sith since Darth Vader and used a unique new weapon. His untimely death at the end of the film only prompted cries for his return, and while he's developed a rich canon through Clone Wars and Rebels, it's been largely out of the limelight. With the latest Star Wars trilogy concluded, now is the best time to develop further spinoff movies, like Solo or Rogue One.
But regardless of whether fans' hopes for Maul to reappear amount to anything, he has a continuing storyline in Clone Wars. Episode 10 of Season 7, which airs on April 26, is titled "Phantom Apprentice," a clear reference to Maul's original story. Fans of Maul can continue to see how his storyline plays out while they wait for what he really deserves: his own film.
Streaming on Disney+, the final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars stars Matt Lanter as Anakin Skywalker, Ashley Eckstein as Ahsoka Tano, Dee Bradley Baker as Captain Rex and the clone troopers, James Arnold Taylor as Obi-Wan Kenobi, Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan and Sam Witwer as Maul. A new episode arrives each Friday.