Star Wars: George Lucas Once Wanted Darth Maul as the Sequel Trilogy's Main Villain

Star Wars creator George Lucas spent decades with the characters and worlds he created, which saw him conjure all manner of storylines for where he saw his stories going, which, at one point, included having Darth Maul be the major villain in the sequel trilogy that would follow his original films. These details will be published in the book The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III 1999-2005 from author Paul Duncan, who took to Twitter to clarify that these concepts were being toyed with as late as 2012 when Lucas ultimately sold Lucasfilm to Disney. The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III 1999-2005 is expected to be published later this year.

The book describes that Darth Maul would have trained a new apprentice, Darth Talon, who occupied a similar role to Darth Vader, as Maul continued to control the criminal underworld. This trilogy would have taken place only a few years after the events of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, with Leia trying to bring order back to the galaxy as Luke attempted to rebuild the Jedi. While Luke would have accomplished his task of rebuilding the Jedi, Leia would have succeeded in establishing a New Republic, solidifying her as the true "Chosen One."

When discussing these exciting reveals on Twitter, author Duncan confirmed to fans, "These were some of his ideas when prepping the films in 2012, before he sold to Disney, as related to me by George in an interview last year."

Adding more fuel to the fires of speculation, Lucasfilm creative art manager Phil Szostak took to Twitter to remind people of concept art crafted of Darth Talon back in 2013.

Darth Talon concept art and storyboards by Iain McCaig from January and February of 2013, as seen in @ABRAMSbooks’ The Art of #TheForceAwakens.#StarWars pic.twitter.com/7MZfrKcWqx

— Phil Szostak (@PhilSzostak) November 10, 2020

As with most reveals about the galaxy far, far away, these details about concepts and plans from Lucas will surely excite some and disappoint others. This is also only the latest in a long line of reveals about how drastically different the sequel trilogy unfolded as compared to Lucas' original intentions for the saga.

Regardless of whether you wish we had gotten to see these plans unfold or are glad they didn't pan out, it's important to remember that Lucas lost interest in telling these stories himself and, without Disney making new films, it's possible we never would have gotten any sequel films from any filmmaker, no matter what those stories might have explored.

The Star Wars Archives: Episodes I-III 1999-2005 is expected to be published later this year.

Do you wish we could have seen these stories unfold? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!