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Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Sam Witwer’s Darth Maul in Solo: A Star Wars Story makes sense as a continuation of the character he helped develop in The Clone Wars—not as a separate take or a performance created by one person. For the film, Witwer voiced Maul while Ray Park performed him physically, with the two artists coordinating the voice and movement. The result connects Maul’s animated history to his live-action role as the hidden leader of Crimson Dawn.
How Maul’s story connects The Clone Wars, Solo, and Rebels
Solo places Maul between two animated chapters: his development in The Clone Wars and his later story in Rebels. By the time he appears in the film, he is no longer simply the disciplined apprentice seen in The Phantom Menace. The intervening events have left him vengeful, damaged, and more self-directed. His position behind Crimson Dawn gives the brief appearance a wider story context.
In a 2018 interview with Gizmodo/io9, Witwer said his work on The Clone Wars informed the darker context he brought to Solo. He also appreciated that the film’s creative team wanted Maul to feel continuous with the animated character. That continuity is about more than retaining a familiar voice: it carries forward a character whose experiences have changed him.
How Sam Witwer and Ray Park coordinated Maul’s performance
Witwer did not simply dub a finished performance by Park. He described a multi-pass process: he recorded Maul’s dialogue first, Park performed while lip-syncing to that recording, and Witwer then recorded again in response to Park’s performance. He also spoke with Park and The Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni as they worked to coordinate the portrayal.
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- MAUL - SHADOW LORD: This Maul 3.75-inch-scale figure (9.5 cm) is inspired by the animated series on Disney+ -- a great gift for collectors and fans ages 4 and up
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The medium shaped Witwer’s vocal choices. Animation gave him room for more vocal variation; for live action, he found a deeper register worked better with Park’s face. As he put it, “The deeper, the better.” That was an adjustment to a particular on-screen performance, not a claim that live action or animation is inherently the better format.
Witwer also praised Park for carrying elements of the animated character into Maul’s physical presence, including attitude and humor. Seeing Park’s work helped Witwer recognize the same character across the two mediums.
Rank #2
- DARTH MAUL: Darth Maul wields an intimidating double-bladed Lightsaber and embraces the dark side
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What changed between The Phantom Menace and Solo
In The Phantom Menace, Maul is a disciplined apprentice serving Darth Sidious. His sparse dialogue and striking design make him an imposing presence, but the film offers little access to his inner life. StarWars.com’s 2017 feature describes him as speaking three lines in the film; that is a published line count, not a measure of his popularity or impact.
Animation gave the character space to change. In The Clone Wars, Maul returns and grows into a more complex, tragic figure shaped by survival, revenge, and his own ambitions. His later appearance in Solo draws on that history: he is now a crime-lord presence, not merely Sidious’s weapon. Rebels carries the arc toward its final confrontation with Obi-Wan.
Rank #3
- DARTH MAUL (SITH APPRENTICE): Darth Sidious apprentice and enforcer, Darth Maul, has cut his way through the ranks of the galactic crime syndicate Black Sun to take on the pinnacle of their organisation
- ENTERTAINMENT-BASED CHARACTER-INSPIRED ACCESSORIES: This Star Wars The Black Series action figure comes with two entertainment-inspired lightsaber accessories that can combine to create a double-bladed lightsaber
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- Model Number: F2814
Witwer’s contribution—and the collaborators behind Maul
Witwer has framed his role as a contribution to a character with a history, not a claim of sole authorship. The original design and screen presence involved concept artist Iain McCaig, George Lucas, and Ray Park; Peter Serafinowicz voiced Maul in The Phantom Menace. Witwer later supplied the voice in animation and for Solo, building on the work that came before.
In StarWars.com’s 2017 feature, Witwer said, “Darth Maul, he was never really mine. He’s Ray Park, he’s Peter Serafinowicz, and now I got to make my contribution.” He also described the responsibility of expanding the character: “It was our responsibility to make a character with intellect and a heart and a soul and dreams of his own.” The shift from mysterious apprentice to damaged, calculating survivor is the creative challenge that makes Maul’s animated history matter to the film.
Rank #4
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Maul’s story after the 2018 interview
The 2018 interview looked back at Solo as a bridge between established animated storylines. Official StarWars.com coverage in 2026 places Witwer’s Maul in a starring role in Maul – Shadow Lord, an early Imperial-era story exploring a period between the character’s beginnings and his later Rebels endpoint. That later series is subsequent franchise context, not part of what the 2018 interview could have discussed.
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