The final scenes of Solo: A Star Wars Story offered audiences some surprising reveals which set the stage for the future of the franchise. Star Alden Ehrenreich recently pointed out that the cameo appearance was so secretive, in fact, that he only discovered it in the months before the film’s release.
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WARNING: Spoilers below for Solo: A Star Wars Story
After Han, Chewie, and Qi’ra defeated Dryden Vos, the trio planned to reunite with Enfys Nest in hopes of giving coaxium to the band of rebels. Instead, Qi’ra stayed behind to contact the head of crime syndicate Crimson Dawn, which audiences witness was Maul, whose last live-action appearance was The Phantom Menace.
“When we were going back and doing a few pick-ups,” shared with Entertainment Tonight about when he learned about the Maul appearance. “There was a part in the script where it said, ‘Somebody appears,’ and it wouldn’t say who. So there was a lot of speculation amongst the crew and cast about who is that gonna be. Then I found out a few months ago. I found out pretty late. Everyone was kind of talking about it and speculating. Some people were really convinced…there were a lot of rumors.”
With Qi’ra’s surprise confirmation of being in cahoots with Maul, it opens up many doors for the future of the saga. The film ends with Han and Chewie discussing an opportunity with a big gangster on Tatooine, seemingly Jabba the Hutt, though the pilot could cross paths with Maul in a potential sequel.
Of a Han vs. Maul showdown, Ehrenreich noted, “Maybe, yeah, that would be pretty cool. That would be great.”
According to director Ron Howard, the filmmakers kept a few options open about which character would be running Crimson Dawn, noting that he pushed for the character to be Maul given the character’s storyline following his conflict with Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequel film.
“They had a list of a few candidates, and they even talked about just inventing a new gangster boss because there are five Syndicates,” Howard explained to Empire. “I said, ‘Maul, what happened to him?’ I hadn’t seen the animations but I knew more had happened with him. They told me the story and I said, ‘Well, wouldn’t that be cool?’ My 30-year-old son thinks that’s the coolest guy, and so I admittedly lobbied. It wasn’t entirely my decision but I thought that was a pretty scary way to go and a way to give our third act a nice twist and a jolt of recognition and excitement. The first time I saw it with fans, I saw that it was a good call.”
Many audiences may have been surprised to see the character, though his journey in both Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels explained how he survived his duel with Obi-Wan and went on to become a ruthless crime lord in his later years.
Solo: A Star Wars Story is in theaters now.
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