Agreed. But I'd like to hear his version of Chancellor Palpatine first. That's where I think Abercrombie really excelled. He was a dead ringer for Ian McDiarmid.

New and intense (albeit brief) preview for the return of Darth Maul on The Clone Wars here.

Man, that is one pissed-off Sith. And it looks like his cranial horns are all grown out.

The preview is supposed to be shown before TPM 3D screenings at select theaters.

On a somewhat related note I'd be curious to see how Dooku wiped out the planet of those "sisters" after they stupidly betrayed him.

Certainly sounds like Witwer. I fear overuse of the same voice actors, could be detrimental to the show.

I’m interested to see how they explain how he survived.

Just come back from watching The Phantom Menace in 3D here in the UK. The movie itself is still the same & to be honest the 3D is very subtle...once again the Lucas hype is a little over-rated.

Most of the movie you could hardly notice the 3D. A little bit of depth here & there. Had high hopes for the Pod Race in 3D - disappointed to say the least.

Was nice to let my 2 young son's experience the galaxy far, far away on the big screen though!

How he survived you can read in the book "Wrath of Darth Maul" by Ryder Windham.

From Wookieepedia:

[spoil]
[align=left]However, Maul survived through his hate and will to live, and hatred against Kenobi, he reached out with the Force and grabbed an air vent. He somehow escaped from Naboo and arrived to Lotho Minor in order to escape his master's anger for Maul's failure. Maul acquired a six-legged cybernetic apparatus to replace his lost lower body, and stayed in the caves of the planet. For over ten years, Maul's memories were lost and he was in state of near-madness, eating only the little animals that came to the cave, but the only thing he remembered was Obi-Wan Kenobi and how he took his legs.

Mother Talzin, the leader of the Nightsisters, was the only one who knew that Darth Maul was alive and in exile somewhere in the Outer Rim. Around 21 BBY, over ten years after Maul's defeat, she gave a special necklace to his brother, Savage Opress, to find him again. Opress left, promising Talzin that he would return. Opress found Maul on Lotho Minor with the help of Nightsister talisman that contained Maul's blood, but Maul attacked Opress and defeated him. Opress introduced himself as Maul's brother, but as Maul had not been aware of his kinship to Opress prior to losing his memories, he thus did not recognize his long-lost brother. Opress presented Maul with the talisman from Talzin, and subsequently reclaimed fragments of his lost memories, and the former Sith Lord was brought back to Dathomir to be treated by Mother Talzin.
[/align][/spoil]

I only hope they have decided to go with the Visionaries look instead of the 6 legged version that’s rumoured ... in my opinion (for what it’s worth) it looks more in line with what Lucas would agree to.

Maul on the body of a wingless fly type version would look a bit shit to say the least.



This gets my vote every time (even though it's totally ridiculous that they have kept him alive in the 1st place!).

I can sorta see why they went with 6 legs. Going bipedal makes him too much like Grievous. Especially if they go with that particular design.

Good point, never thought of the Grievous connection...but...on the same idea...if it worked so successfully for Grievous could Maul want the same for himself....only more attuned to his needs?

Check the link out below for some footage of Sam Witwer and Clancy Brown doing their thing for the Darth Maul episode & a brief clip of Maul & Opress talking!

Looks awesome!

Why can't people who die in movies actually be dead?

The reason I'm not a huge fan of this is that while I'm sure there's a couple of ways to do this right, the overwhelming odds are that they do it wrong and the comeback feels more contrived than compelling.

I like the casting, though there was a lot of overacting in the booth. I guess we'll see how it shakes out.

I still can’t get my head round Lucas allowing Maul to survive - Someone simply can’t survive being cut in half - Even if the wound was totally cauterised! The fall should have killed him as it looked like a bottomless pit.

I took my 2 young sons to see Phantom in 3d last weekend & my youngest, who’s 8, asked on the way home how Maul could still be alive. I had no answer for him! My eldest who’s 12 simply said “It’s so Mr. Lucas can make more money off new figures that you (his brother) will buy!" ....I had to smile!

I must admit, after Boba Fett, Maul is my next favourite character. It will be interesting to see how well his survival is explained.

Death & rebirth - yet another Mythological theme used in Star Wars. Anakin survived his injuries on Mustafar - there isn't any way a human being could have survived that either - but this is a fantasy flick where a lot of things don't make sense. Virgin births, explosions in space, swords made up of laser light ...

Anyone know when the next batch of new episodes'll air? Will the first of the bunch, "Massacre," premiere in March?

Kinda excited about the return of Maul.

"Massacre" will air this Friday.

"someone simply can’t survive being cut in half"


Yea, but this is Star Wars, and we already have two cases that are even more unlikely.


General Grievous - Lost every body part except his lungs, brain, heart and eyes. That’s a lot more than Maul.

Darth Vader - Lost two legs and an arm, and then his entire body was set on fire, his lungs (and probably most other important organs) being destroyed in the process.

Maul isn’t particularly farfetched in comparison.

Darth Maul revealed:

[spoil]
Maul Clone Wars.png



[/spoil]

Here's a link to the trailer from whence came that still.

1. The audience never sees the "death" of GG "the alien" so we're never put in the position of saying "bullshit he could have survived that." We simply accept that there once was an alien - the fact that he's an alien is significant because it distances us from the reality of how this thing could survive a catastrophic event - who was terribly injured and is rebuilt in a robot body. We accept that this is possible because of the Darth Vader comparison.

2. Vader loses legs and arms and suffers catastrophic 3rd degree burns. People survive these injuries on Earth so it's entirely plausible that Anakin could have survived.

3. Darth Maul is sliced in half and appears dead moments after his severed body falls into a bottomless pit. The drama of the moment is intended to make you believe he's dead and that there's no way of him coming back. Up until this point all canon pointed towards Obi-Wan killing Maul. That's the difference.



Your son is right.

After seeing that trailer, I gotta admit it does look pretty awesome! Just hope they explain it well enough.

I wonder if Kenobi finishes the job this time or if he’s captured?! Pleased to see it’s the 2 legged version they have gone for ... unless he can detach to use various styles? Just showed it to the kids & they have gone ape-shit!

Roll on March 9th

As a whole, the Clone Wars series is being rolled out in a self-contained way. While it is cannon, you can choose to ignore it since the series and the movies don’t interact in any obvious manner.

Maul’s appearance on the show isn’t simply for action figure purposes. He was a one-note character in TPM and Lucas wanted to explore him in more detail. Plus, his return provides Lucas with a chance to futz around with the themes of vengeance and hatred again. These concepts were dealt with Vader in ANH in a slightly abbreviated manner.

I agree that “the hanging from a pipe and surviving through the Darkside” explanation seems a little hackneyed. Maul’s death was inspired by the finale of Kurosawa’s Sanjuro (see below). In not using as much blood as Kurosawa, I think Lucas gave himself a little wiggle room with Maul’s death. Still, him being conscious after bifurcation seems hard to swallow. I figured he had died and Mother Talzon brought him back to life.

[flash width=640 height=385]http://www.youtube.com/v/NYbi7gKKvOo?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1[/flash]

At any rate, I’m glad he’s back and being portrayed in different way. While I think Maul’s largely silent and mysterious portrayal was the correct choice for TPM’s story, the series needs to give him more layers if he’s to carry a few story arcs. As such, it seems like the right choice to make him mad with anger and shame.

In an unrelated note: where the hell is Dengar?

He had two other movies in which he should have done that.

He's around Han Solo's age and didn't become a bounty hunter (or at least acquire his appearance) until after he was an adult.

I suspect we will see him in the next episode, "Bounty". The title suggests that there could be bounty hunter in it. And because Bane is in prison, Dengar could appear. Filoni also said that there will be "Hound's Tooth" in one of the episodes. We can only wait until next episode will be shown.

I think Filoni was making a reference to the ship that Cad Bane and Muraloeval got shot down in. It wasn't the Hound's Tooth, but it was a look-alike.

/wiki/YV-666_light_freighter

All that aside from the fact that Dengar's ship is Punishing One.

Back to the Darth Maul stuff and re the trailer, WOW! I don't care how lame the actual arc turns out to be, that trailer makes everything worth it. Star Wars has always been just as much about the hype as the actual content for me, and I'm more hyped now after seeing that trailer than I have for a long time.

Here's Dengar and other bounty hunters, so I think we should see "The Hound's Tooth".

[flash width=560 height=315]http://www.youtube.com/v/D-ZonX4ysoU?version=3&hl=en_US&rel=0[/flash]

The official site just posted the trailer for this final arc that's been out for a while now. It's a much clearer picture and I noticed something:

During the trailer, at about 32 seconds in, we see a spidery-looking set of mechanical legs walk through the shot in the foreground. Are these Maul's legs? The trailer implies that they could be. Plus, the original rumor was that Maul would return with six legs. On the other hand, the last shot of the trailer clearly shows a two-legged Maul.

What's going on here? Who do those spidery legs belong to?

Official description of "Brothers" is:

"After being used as a weapon of vengeance by Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress, the dark warrior Savage Opress embarked on a galaxy-spanning quest to find his long-lost brother, the legendary Darth Maul. Maul lives in the depths of a ruined world as a shattered madman barely held together by dreams of vengeance. Savage conspires with the scheming witch Mother Talzin to heal Darth Maul's body and mind, so that the brothers can begin a new crusade of vengeance against the Jedi."


And if you read article about him on Wookieepedia, there are spoilers from Ryder Windham's book "Wrath of Darth Maul" how he survived (or maybe you read the book). So these spidery legs belong to Maul and (it's now my guess) Mother Talzin will use her magic to remove extra legs

Or perhaps his legs open and close like Grievous's arms.

Or like a Kardashian's ... geez, with a name like your I would have thought you'd be all over that joke.

The Clone Wars secret-keepers prove their worth once again: Simon Pegg voices Dengar. Boy, nothing leaks from this show.

Fuck Simon Pegg. Seriously, fuck him with a retractable baton. That asshole has been spouting off everytime something SW has happened in the past decade about how Lucas fucked everything up. JAckass should at least have the decency to turn the gig down. dork.

Brothers & Revenge Previews:

[flash width=640 height=385]http://www.youtube.com/v/PTzTXVw4rQk?fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0&hd=1[/flash]


Here's new clip from "Revenge".

Read the interview over at YahooTV and noticed something I hadn't read before. Witweir specifically mentions how the character is going to evolve over the remainder of the show' run, and it sounds like Maul is going to be a very strong, and evolving continuing presence in the next few seasons. He also mentions that he is able to balance (PRESENT tense) work on Clone Wars with his series. Since this arc was recorded about a year ago I'm guessing, that seems to bode well for more Maul.

What about this?

I reason I dislike this Maul comeback is because he's portrayed like a completely different character than he was in TPM. I understand this building rage and this insanity, but it's almost a complete 180 to the Maul we knew in TPM.

That's the point, isn't it?

Even though Brothers was a mismanaged episode, I’m not ready to give up on Maul. After all, he’s had less than eight minutes of screen time in the series.

I think that Maul’s return is interesting in its implications for the shows main characters. For instance, Sidious can’t be happy with this turn of events. Maul could willingly lead the Jedi right to him. I’d be surprised if Palpatine didn’t stoke Anakin to avenge Qui-gon’s death. (I also wonder if Obi-wan will struggle with his own feelings of anger toward Maul.)

Prior to Massacre, I thought that Death Watch and the Nightsisters would join forces. Maybe it will be Death Watch and the Maul brothers?

I don't think the Brothers would team up with Death Watch because they don't seem like they would trust anyone at this point. I'm pretty sure that Opress will want to help Maul hunt Obi Wan and then in return he would help him with Anakin and the Sith.

As for Maul, he seemed pretty "normal" to me because before the transformation, his whole tribe wasn't really crazy.

/star-wars-clone-wars-darth-maul-obi-wan-rematch-video/


New Maul clip, best TCW preview ever IMHO. I’m starting to think "Revenge" will be everything I hope it can be (best of the best).

Holy shi'ite! Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Maul: The Rematch!

That's a pretty good clip. They sure have given Maul a helluva lot more to say.

I like how they laid down some choral music for, like, the first time ever in the series. I wonder if we'll be getting a Duel of the Fates cameo.

BELOW: Two excepts revealing that both Darth Maul and Savage Opress are here to to stay - at least into next season:


Darth Maul Returns By Randy Stradley:

source: (darkhorse.com)

• By the end of Season 4 of The Clone Wars, everybody’s second favorite Sith Apprentice will have taken his first steps on his path of vengeance, to be continued in Season 5, next fall.


Sam Witwer on Darth Maul's Clone Wars Resurrection: "He's going to be around for a little bit"

source (ew.com)

• The Sith don’t really look at death as a natural progression — they look at death as a defeat — so some of them hold onto their lives against all reasoning. They’re so egotistical that some of them don’t let go. And what happens to Vader physically is what happens to Darth Maul mentally

• As we’ve portrayed him he’s a lot smarter, more charismatic, and funnier than anybody would ever have thought him to be. And when I say funny, I mean in the way his master is funny: when things are going their way they might say something they’d find very amusing. ... I don’t think I’m spoiling too much when I say that he’s going to be around for a little bit. You will see a lot more of him going forward than you would have expected.

• Dave Filoni said he wanted a Gollum-type version of the character ... I saw that there were also some Col. Kurtz similarities. You had Savage looking for this guy and it turns out he’s hidden away in a cave saying crazy things. And I thought it might be an opportunity to do a little Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now stuff.











ABOVE: is the Darth Maul spread from the latest insider which even though it was scanned two weeks ago it now being posted "for the record" (Also for those of you who have Cargo Forums access the entire issue is available for browsing.)