Voice of Maul Thinks 'Solo: A Star Wars Story' Is About Qi'ra Rescuing Han From Darkness

With Solo: A Star Wars Story now available on home media, there has been a resurgence in interest [...]

By Russ Burlingame

With Solo: A Star Wars Story now available on home media, there has been a resurgence in interest and discussion of the film, which was a box office disappointment and sent shockwaves through Disney.

One of the people with a particularly interesting take on the film is actor Sam Witwer, who provided the voice of Darth Maul in the film.

"It doesn't occur to you the first time, but the second time you see the movie, that movie is really about Qi'ra trying to save Han Solo's soul, because she knows he's gonna follow her all the way to hell if he has the chance, so she has to break his heart," Witwer told CinemaBlend. "She has to keep him away from the darkest elements of the universe. She has to keep him firmly out of hell and ascending, which his trajectory as a character is to ascend, and she knows that. But that ascendant quality that Han Solo has, that good guy quality could be corrupted and used in the opposite direction, because she knows where she's going and she knows he doesn't belong there. So if you want to really illustrate that, and you need to keep that criminal, dark side element in the background and keep it mysterious, then yes, it's a smart move to use something that George Lucas had already established elsewhere and suddenly introduce that in there."

The logic holds: at the start of the film, Han and Qi'ra plan to escape their life of indentured servitude together. When circumstances separate them, allowing only Han to escape, he vows to return for Qi'ra -- and eventually does, only to find that she has also found a way out of the slums, by aligning herself with powerful and dangerous people.

At the end of the movie, Han gives Qi'ra the chance to escape with him again -- and, again, he gets away while she stays behind...this time on purpose, revealing that she had been working with a secretive crime lord all along: Maul.

It is easy to assume that Qi'ra leaves Han because of selfishness or lust for power, but the interpretation that she may have been trying to protect him from his own instincts is an interesting spin that deepens her character if true.

Of course, it is difficult to know when or whether her story will be followed up on, given that Solo underperformed.

Solo: A Star Wars Story is now available on DVD, Blu-ray, and digital. Star Wars Episode IX will be in theaters on December 19, 2019.

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