15 Things You Probably Didn't Know About Darth Maul

Although he faced a number of close calls, Maul ultimately survived the Clone Wars. During the age of the Empire, he spent much time searching for Obi-Wan and ultimately manipulated Ezra Bridger into leading him right to the Jedi Master on Tatooine. The two dueled, and Maul was ultimately defeated for the last time at Kenobi's hands. 

As he lay dying, though, Maul took comfort in the fact that the boy Kenobi was guarding was the Chosen One, and would get vengeance on the Emperor for what he had done to both of them. In a final gesture of kindness, Obi-Wan built a funeral pyre for Maul and sent him out of this world with compassion, in spite of the bitter fights they had endured.

When Maul and Opress were leading the Shadow Collective, they were also claiming to be the true Sith and apprentice, instead of Darth Sidious and Count Dooku. For a time, this challenge didn't bother Sidious, but Maul eventually amassed enough power that Sidious felt he had to confront him head-on.

Sidious ultimately won that fight, but it speaks to Maul's legacy that he managed to pose a substantial threat to the Sith Lord. Sidious may have cast him aside as an apprentice, but that ultimately transformed Maul into a thorn in his former master's side. 

Maul never managed to defeat Sidious in combat, but he was nonetheless one of the deadliest Sith lords in the history of the order. Although he was only a Sith apprentice, he managed to take down Qui-Gon, and he held his own with both Jedi when they were battling him simultaneously. His training included the mastery of several forms of lightsaber combat as well as acrobatic training enabling him to outmaneuver his opponents with great ease. His fighting prowess didn't stop with just lightsaber combat either- his proficiency at unarmed combat in tandem with his Force abilities made him a terrifying monster– just ask the clone troopers aboard the Tribunal in the penultimate episode of The Clone Wars.

Before taking any residual Nightsister magicks into account, there were few Sith lords who could kill more ruthlessly (and efficiently) than Maul. 

Before Lucas handed off the making of the sequel films to Disney, he considered making Maul the big bad in his versions of Episodes VII, VIII, and IX. In this conception, Maul would have taken on the Star Wars Legends character Darth Talon as an apprentice and would have become a crime lord with influence across the galaxy. 

This crime lord idea is based on the established history of the character, and it even gets a reference in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Of course, once Lucas handed Disney the reins for the sequel trilogy, the idea of using Maul as a villain was scrapped. 

As part of his training to become a Sith Lord, Darth Sidious decided to give Maul a history lesson. He took him to the planet Malachor; allowing him to see visions of a great conflict between the Jedi and Sith that had taken place generations before during an attack on the Sith temple. This fight ultimately precipitated the downfall of the Sith. While on Malachor, Maul breathed in the ashes of his Sith predecessors and had visions of their end at the hands of the Jedi.

Separately, Ezra Bridger, Kanan Jarrus, and Ashoka Tano discovered the petrified remains of the battlefield and determined that neither side had emerged victorious. 

Maul was already powerful with the Force when he fought Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon on Naboo, but he didn't use it much in their fight. Instead, he relied primarily on his skills with a lightsaber, which proved to be more than enough to take down Qui-Gon. After Obi-Wan defeated him, though, Maul began to use the Force with much more frequency during combat. He remained a skilled lightsaber duelist, but he started to complement that skill more regularly with the Force, which only made him even stronger.