Maul's Original Voice Actor Recorded Lines for Solo: A Star Wars Story

If there’s one saving grace from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, it’s Darth Maul. Whenever the dual-bladed Sith villain appeared on-screen, you knew that things were going to get better. After all, they couldn’t get much worse!

But since the character was prematurely offed at the end of Episode I, the Powers-That-Be have resurrected him. Star Wars fans have grown ever more fond of the villain after his appearances in The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series. So much so that he was even given a surprise cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Now, in the theatrical version we saw, the character was voiced by Sam Witwer. The 41-year-old actor also voiced him in the animated shows mentioned above (and, bonus trivia, the Apprentice in The Force Unleashed videogames). But it turns out that someone else was originally considered to voice said cameo. That someone was the original voice actor from Episode I, Peter Serafinowicz!

The 46-year-old British actor, most recently known for Amazon’s The Tick series, was on the Collider podcast recently and revealed he was approached to reprise the role for Solo. In fact, he actually met director Ron Howard and recorded Darth Maul’s lines. Soon after the recording, Ray Parks – who played the body role of Maul in Episode I – would return to play the cameo.

But Serafinowicz knew something was amiss when he wasn’t invited to Solo‘s premiere. It was only the day after that an email came through to him, telling him that his voice had been replaced with that of Sam Witwer. They explained that they did this to ensure the Star Wars continuity from the shows.

A real bummer when you consider that Serafinowicz was about to see the film with his kids. In the end, he never went.

Do you think Lucasfilm’s decision to wait until the last minute to tell Serafinowicz was a poor one? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!