Obi-Wan Kenobi director Deborah Chow explained why Darth Vader is one of the key antagonists in the Disney+ show, and not Darth Maul.
Chow opened up about the decision to include Vader and exclude Maul in a recent interview with Total Film. "With a lot of the legacy aspects, the decision to bring Vader into it was not made lightly," she said. "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."
Reports that Maul almost appeared in Obi-Wan Kenobi first surfaced in March 2022. At the time, insiders claimed that actor Ray Park was briefly on board to reprise the role, and took part in pre-production prep and stunt training. Some sources even alleged that Park filmed footage for the show before Maul was cut from the show. An unnamed Lucasfilm representative subsequently denied that Park was ever on the set, something Lucasfilm Creative Executive Pablo Hidalgo backed up when he branded rumors of Maul's involvement "bullshit."
Chow would herself later debunk speculation that Maul was excised from Obi-Wan Kenobi, insisting the ex-Sith Lord was never part of her plans for the series. "As long as I’ve been involved, we’ve never had Darth Maul in any of it," she said. Chow further added that Dave Filoni did "a beautiful job of telling that story already," presumably referring to the final showdown between Kenobi and Maul in Star Wars Rebels, co-written and directed by Filoni.
Chow recently went on record to discuss what fans can expect from Maul's Sith successor, Darth Vader, in Obi-Wan Kenobi. "This is not Vader from A New Hope, exactly," Chow said. "This is not exactly Revenge Of The Sith." Star Hayden Christensen, who reprises the Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader role, nevertheless promised fans they can expect "100 percent a fully realized" version of the iconic villain, who is very much in his prime.
Christensen also revealed that the lightsaber combat in Obi-Wan Kenobi will be similar to the choreography he and co-star Ewan McGregor performed in the Star Wars prequels. "We're more in line with the prequels than we are with how the fights are in the original trilogy," Christensen explained. "These characters have aged, but not that much yet."
The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi arrive on Disney+ on May 27, 2022.
Source: Total Film