*That* Solo Cameo

Just read an article on LRM where Ron Howard talks about lobbying for Maul to be the ultimate boss of Crimson Dawn. He says that when he came on board there was a list of potential characters for the role so they hadn't decided upon anything that late into production which suggests that LFM doesn't really have any concrete plans for Maul despite some assumptions to the contrary.

 

I didn't particularly mind Maul being the head of Crimson Dawn, but saying that I watched all of TCW and Rebels. I wasn't a fan of bringing him back, but they did the job really well.

I do however think it will be a bit jarring for the casual movie goer, or even the casual SW fan. To those that have only seen the films and have no interest in the outside material it must seem like a "WTF - this guy was cut in half and killed in TPM!!" moment. Or they just think it's someone else that looks like him.

Certainly looks like they are setting up a Hutt vs Crimson Dawn sequel, so I'm gonna guess there'll be more of him. Hopefully with a very small bit of exposition to explain his survival (for the casual).

 

I agree with all of this. The cameo worked well for most hardcore fans, but it is problematic for casual fans. For people who didn't watch the TV shows, many reactions have been of the "What the heck!?" variety, and some people even apparently took the cameo to mean that Solo happens before TPM (even though the Empire is mentioned several times, putting it after ROTS). For them, it's not so much surprising as confusing.

I know hardcore fans don't necessarily like this kind of thing, but I feel like this could have been alleviated with a little more "winking" at the audience - like Maul could have said something like, "If I can survive being cut in half, you can handle this."

 

Regarding the "Apprentice Qi'ra" theory...

I wonder if this costuming is more intentional than we previously thought...?

 

LOL, that link you provided was the exact reaction my wife had. Her knowledge of Star Wars is just within the movies, and that knowledge is only about the major beats of the movie. So when Maul appears, she knew it was him with the red lightsaber. She immediately was confused about the age of everyone because in her mind Maul was dead and that places the movie SOLO before TPM, making Han older than Anakin and Obi Wan etc etc. So I had to explain everything after the movie.

As for me, I didn't mind the cameo or the story that he was leading Crimson Dawn, but, when he pulls his lightsaber out and ignites it for no reason what so ever... that made me roll my eyes....

 

The 'casuals' I was with weren't necessarily confused, as it seemed as though they heard something about him being alive, so I only had to offer a quick explanation. They shrugged it off as it was really more of an epilogue - that role could have been anybody.

 

yeah, my sister was like: "it's Darth Maul!"
points to her for even knowing who it was. XD

explaining why/how he was there, however, was going to make no difference, so i just let her think whatever about the timeline.
nothing about it bothered her in the slightest and she loved the movie.

 

I mean, it really isn't all that confusing.

At the end of the first Thor movie, we see Loki fall.



Then in the Avengers, he's back like normal. And nobody really questioned it.

The same thing happens to Maul in TPM.


And sure, he was also cut in half. But as it turns out, this is fiction. I think a lot of viewers would be willing to suspend their disbelief to think that the devilish looking space wizard might happen to not be totally be beholden to the same constraints as the average human being.


Now, try explaining the actual canon to them and it might be confusing.

"Sorry, did you say witches brought him back? And he had spider legs at one point? And a brother who, and you're still not kidding, was named 'Savage Opress'? That all just seems unlikely."

 

Interesting!

Lol... Maybe they’re waiting to see what *we* come up with.

(Really though- If I were them, I’d totally do that.)

—

I have to admit- I’ve often said that they’d be very unlikely to make a move that would/may confuse the casual fans. ...But this “baffling missing puzzle piece” allows for a brief on-screen reminiscence.

(Ugh...I so hated the arachnid-Maul...it felt ridiculous...they can leave that part out!)

Maul is such an excellent character though... and, (as with many others), I’ve relished the storytelling events that resulted from his return.

I’m glad that he’s back on the big screen, and I’m glad I was wrong about the choices made from the big chairs. (It seems like the casual fans can hack it just fine.)

 

A recreation of what that looked like...

 

Maul's reappearance has always felt awkward to me (yes, I know George did it in TCW), but I'm torn: I love the connective tissue element it provides. That said, Lucas really screwed the pooch when he killed off Maul in TPM in the first place. The reintroduction was adequate at best in the TV shows. As to how how he'll influence things going forward? Well if there's a Solo sequel he'll undoubtedly play the main baddie. What I'd rather see is what many have voiced prior: he plays a role in the Bobba Fett movie (along with Han/Chewie). I wouldn't mind seeing him in an Obi-Wan pic but totally apart from Han/Bobba (that couldn't work).

In summary, he would not have been the villain I'd have chosen to show up at the end, but he was, so let's make the most of it! This could open up some really cool doors.

 

Really interesting Howard saying that the Cameo wasn't planned all along the script just said "the Boss" and they hadn't decided who it would be when Howard came on board, and Maul was just one of the options. Really astounds be how little planning has gone into some of these films before they started shooting, watching the film you assumed that if they where including Maul they were doing it as a set up fro future stories which they had a plan for, that doesn't seem to be the case.

Glad they went with Maul, and reading that made me count my lucky stars this was the direction they went in the end.

 

I am guessing the Maul-spider thing will never be mentioned again.

 

Haha, perfect! I actually thought of that sketch while writing it!

Just goes to show you- a lot of time, these types of movies are a "you had to be there" kind of thing.

Really, if you try to describe anything to someone who hasn't seen it, it'll sound so much weirder than it really is.

"So, the Avengers...

Uhh, Captain America wakes up from being frozen since the '40s, meets up with a billionaire guy in a robot suit, the Incredible Hulk, the Norse God Thor (only he's more from a sci-fi Asgard than a fantasy/mythological Asgard), Scarlet Johansen with good karate skills, and a guy who's good with a bow and arrow. They fight Loki (again, from techy Asgard) and a random army of aliens. But the real villain is this big purple guy named Thanos, who's looking for the Infinity Gauntlet, which is in Cyber Asgard, but maybe not really.

Oh, and that one chick from How I Met Your Mother is there, too."

Come to think of it, the pump up speech Hawkeye gives to Scarlet Witch at the end of Age of Ultron isn't that far from this. Really good self aware moment of how as a franchise grows, it gets more and more ridiculous to those outside of it.

As a big Assassin's Creed fan, I know that pain all too well.

Probably not. I think it was more an homage to the non-canon story where he was first "resurrected", and had spider legs.

 

I think too many assumptions are made about what the majority of people may think about Maul coming back...

Plenty of articles being written on how people are getting or probably will get confused...

https://www.express.co.uk/entertain...th-Maul-dead-die-Obi-Wan-Kenobi-kill-timeline

https://www.hypable.com/solo-cameo/

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2018/05/solo-star-wars-darth-maul-alive-died-cameo-explained

I can keep posting article after article that feels the need to explain the appearance of Maul because most people acknowledge that a lot of people are going to be confused by Maul appearing at the end of the movie.

It's easy to use the broad brush and sweep it under the rug as audiences will just accept it because they will. To me, it's a great scene for the die hard fans, but it leaves the general audience out of the twist, and audiences don't like being left out, as if they are on the outside of an inside joke.

 

I'm a big Darth Maul fan. But the cameo in this movie just put me off. Not only did he look like CGI to me, but he adds nothing to this movie and it just felt so random and ill-placed. I also think its pretty dumb that they even still say he survived his fall in the first place but I was fine with them leaving that to the animated shows and comics. I liked the movie and I like Darth maul but did not his cameo in this unfortunately. Also him turning on his lightsaber mid conversation for no apparent reason was very cringe worthy.

 

I mean, he wasn't even CGI though...

It was Ray Park. I guess the hologram effect was CGI, but the actor himself was completely practical as far as I know.

 

He was CGI....because that's what holograms are.

Why is this issue even exist? Snoke and Maul were holograms!!!! They're not supposed to look real. This is insane.

--- Double Post Merged, May 31, 2018, Original Post Date: May 31, 2018 ---

I've come to the conclusion that AofU is an underrated movie (like some SW films.....), the last time I watched it I really liked it. Fans ruin everything for a time it seems. That speech is great, I hope Renner's back for IW2.

 

I'm not disputing the fact that it was Ray Park, but when I first saw it my immediate reaction was "why did they make Darth Maul CGI. I'm not sure what they did to him but in the moment it looked completely CGI to me and sort of ruined the moment". Even now knowing it was actually Ray Park it still looks CGI to me.

 

What if this cameo was a sort of "testing the waters" for other future spin-offs (film or tv).
Meaning, they might tweak the Boba Fett film into a Criminal Underground film, with different syndicates fighting each other. Almost an "Godfather in space".

This way, you can have Han & Chewie working for Jabba and Boba Fett working for another syndicate (maybe Crimson Dawn), which would explain their rivalry. It's also a way to introduce known and new characters, to even further expand this GFFA.

About that Godfather in space idea, apparently Guillermo del Toro has thoughts about that...