Voice Of Darth Maul Breaks Down The Final Duel With Obi-Wan

Last season on Star Wars Rebels finally brought an end to a story that began nearly two decades ago when Star Wars: The Phantom Menace premieres in theaters.

The epic lightsaber duel between Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Darth Maul resulted in the death of a Jedi Master and the Sith Apprentice being cut in half, starting a rivalry that would last through the Clone Wars and beyond.

With the Star Wars Rebels episode “Twin Suns,” the bitter feud between Maul and Kenobi finally reached its end. Their final duel ended in the blink in an eye, but the scene was packed with references to their volatile history.

Darth Maul voice actor Sam Witwer recently spoke with ComicBook.com about ending his tenure with the character, and went into a detailed breakdown of the scene’s significance and the many easter eggs found within.

“I’ll be honest. I think if it were, if we had more screen time, there woulda been some more stuff in there,” said Witwer. “Having said that, maybe not as much more as I think, because Star Wars- when you do it right, there’s a certain economy of dialogue; there’s a certain economy of just even shots … it’s about picking the right line, not picking a bunch of lines, you know?

“And Dave [Filoni, Rebels EP] did that with the story. I remember pitching to him a whole bunch of extra dialogue for Maul and Kenobi, and Dave always hears me out when I have pitches and stuff … and this is one of those circumstances where Dave basically denied my pitch for more dialogue, more this, more that … and some of the stuff that I pitched I thought was very interesting.”

Witwer said that Filoni executed the story very well, and that he was glad his suggestions weren’t thrown in.

“But when you see it, you realize … you’re like, ‘You know, I think the spirit of everything that I wanted to say is in the episode, it’s in those shots. It’s in this arc of storytelling. It’s in this piece of, this little film that he made.’ And it’s almost better if it’s not said literally, but you just let the audience just kind of dive into it and swim in this moment.”

Darth Maul the Bully

Witwer admired the all of the major moments and callbacks backed in the scene, praising Filoni’s work as a storyteller.

“If you break down, if you almost watch the episode in slow motion, you’ll notice all kinds of stuff that he hid in the shots … all kinds of storytelling beats, and … even the fight is full of storytelling,” he said. “I like to say that it’s this wonderful- it’s like if Darth Maul and Obi-Wan were these high school rivals, like one was a high school football bully, and one would be bookish nerd … I dunno, like sorta do an 80s comedy, right? But ultimately when you have a grudge for that long, you’re stuck in one place, and you wanted to tell the story of how Maul hadn’t grown and Obi-Wan had grown.

“And when Maul sparks up his lightsaber, Obi-Wan does the same thing, but he goes into the Ewan McGregor pose. It’s almost like a reflex. Like, ‘Oh, I remember how this feels … this guy … it’s like that dude that I hate from high school and he’s still being a bully, he’s still being a jerk.’ And it makes you react like when you were a young person, so Obi-Wan sparks up the Ewan McGregor pose. But then he gets in the moment, he goes, ‘No, no, no, that would be a mistake. That was always the mistake I was making with this guy. I’m not that guy any more. I’m not that kid. I’m Alec Guinness,’ and then so then he goes into the Alec Guinness pose.”

Maul’s sole purpose had been in seeking revenge, but Obi-Wan experienced much more in the years since that duel and their subsequent confrontations, and he had a new purpose hiding on Tatooine.

“And then, realizing that Maul sort of provoked him into becoming Ewan McGregor for just a moment, he goes, ‘Let’s see if I can do the same thing for him, and let’s also see if I can honor my master,’ and he goes into the Qui-Gon Jinn pose,” Witwer said. “[Filoni] set Maul up to try to kill Obi-Wan with the same move that he killed Qui-Gon Jinn with. There’s a very interesting game of chess that’s being played there, but Obi-Wan does bait him, while at the same time honoring his master and making the declaration that he is now the master, by going into the Qui-Gon Jinn pose.

“Just really interesting storytelling beats that all pass within seconds of film time, right? But when Star Wars is done right, that’s what happens, right? That’s why keep watching these movies year after year, because we feel like if we lean into the TV a little bit closer, and we watch the scenes a little bit more attentively, that we’re going to discover something that we’ve never discovered before, and inevitably, we do. That’s why we keep going back to these movies over and over and over again, because they’re executed so well that the depth of stuff that you can pull out of those frames is almost endless.”

Ezra’s Journey

Witwer added that the episode does a great job of paralleling Obi-Wan’s journey with Ezra’s journey, forcing the young rebel to walk in the Jedi hermit’s footsteps.

“And I feel like that episode had the same magic to it, that you can just lean in and go, like Ezra being in the desert after he gets attacked by the Sand People,” Witwer added. “You’re just like, this is a story about Ezra that leads to Obi-Wan Kenobi, but why does this feel sufficient? It shouldn’t. If Ezra was off, let’s say, on a space station fighting Stormtroopers and then he toddles down from the space station and meets Obi-Wan instantly … it wouldn’t feel right.”

He commented on how the show organically built to their meeting while harkening back to previous moments from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

“But there’s something that feels right about Ezra getting attacked, going, ‘Whoa, this is a trap, Chopper, this is a trap, but now we must go into the desert anyway.’ Why does that feel right? You go, ‘Oh, because that’s what happened to Obi-Wan.’ Ezra has to walk in Obi-Wan’s footsteps, he has to walk in his shoes, before he’s earned the right to meet Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Witwer said. “Obi-Wan coming under attack, realizing it’s a trap, and fighting anyway, and moving on anyway, it’s the Clone Wars. The Jedi go, ‘Wow, we’re screwed and we know we’re screwed. And we know this is all a trap set by the Sith, but we can’t see our way out of it, so we have to fight this war.’

“It’s like interesting, it’s like, Ezra wandering through the desert is what Obi-Wan had to do to atone for the crimes of being a war general. And being a general is not a crime, but for a Jedi, doing it the way that the Jedi did it, they were playing the Siths’ game, and for that reason Obi-Wan needs to atone. I dunno, anyway, I could go on and on and on about what’s in those episodes, but it’s all there. It’s all there if you lean in close enough.”

Witwer talked about the familiarity Star Wars stories have, and how repeating motifs and themes tend to resonate more with the fans.

“There’s a reason these things … you know, when they feel right and they feel wrong, you find that when they feel right, there’s a reason it feels right. There’s a reason,” Witwer said. “And sometimes, by the way that the filmmaker, if they’re really in tune, they don’t always know why they want to make a certain move. Or as an actor, I don’t always know why I want to do it a certain way, but I just know I do. And then some fan will go, ‘You did it because of this!’ And you go, ‘Oh my God, that is why I did it. I didn’t know why at the time, but I think that’s why I did it.’ And then other times, it isn’t why you did it, but you take credit for it anyway, ’cause we’re all egomaniacs. [We] Sith are egomaniacs, that’s just how it is.”

The Force That Binds Us

Witwer talked about the familiarity Star Wars stories have, and how repeating motifs and themes tend to resonate more with the fans.

“There’s a reason these things … you know, when they feel right and they feel wrong, you find that when they feel right, there’s a reason it feels right. There’s a reason,” Witwer said. “And sometimes, by the way that the filmmaker, if they’re really in tune, they don’t always know why they want to make a certain move.

“Or as an actor, I don’t always know why I want to do it a certain way, but I just know I do. And then some fan will go, ‘You did it because of this!’ And you go, ‘Oh my God, that is why I did it. I didn’t know why at the time, but I think that’s why I did it.’ And then other times, it isn’t why you did it, but you take credit for it anyway, ’cause we’re all egomaniacs. [We] Sith are egomaniacs, that’s just how it is.”

Star Wars Rebels Season 3 is now available on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital HD.

Season 4 premieres Monday, October 16 on Disney XD.