Star Wars Rebels Will See The Return Of A Sith Lord

A new Star Wars Rebels trailer broke this afternoon, showing a familiar and sinister face.

We saw Obi Wan Kenobi slice him in half in The Phantom Menace and watched the two pieces of his body fall down the shaft. Then, in The Clone Wars, we saw his kinetic rage and lust for revenge had made him survive. In the canon comic Son of Dathomir, we read how he escaped Darth Sidious’s clutches and then, after a colossal showdown, faded into the background, his fate thereafter left unresolved.

Now, from new footage from the second half of season two of Star Wars Rebels, we find he has returned. He calls himself, “Old Master,” but we know him as an old enemy: Darth Maul.

This is not the first character from The Clone Wars we’ve seen make a cameo on the show’s Disney XD successor. Most notable is Ahsoka Tano, whom we learned had built two new white-bladed lightsabers and dedicated herself to helping rebels fight against the Empire. The new Rebels trailer show her destiny is to fight Darth Vader… but what the Emperor’s former apprentice is there for, isn’t clear.

If the cut of the trailer is to be believed, Ezra Bridger is somehow going to get involved with the down-and-out Sith lord. The trailer also teased a dark side temple and a red and black holocron; it is possible the Ghost crew somehow ends up on Moraband, one of the planets controlled and populated by the Sith in ages gone by. Perhaps Maul sought refuge there after he escaped Sidious just before the end of the Clone Wars. Or maybe he’s there for a different reason, perhaps for a sinister plot we as yet have no notion of.

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I’m not sure Ezra does interact directly with Maul, however. If you look closely at the GIF above, the two sequences don’t seem to match; Darth Maul looks as if he’s in a much darker place than Ezra is. That doesn’t mean the two don’t interact; Maul does tell someone to call him, “Old Master.” But trailers are tricky; they can be cut so as to make you believe you’re seeing one thing, when the truth is far different.

The fact remains, however, Maul is back. And to what end? Is he searching for an apprentice, with Ezra happening to be the best candidate at hand? Is he still in league with the Mandalorian Death Watch?

A more pressing question, however, the answer to which could present an opportunity for another big film character cameo: Is Maul still pining for revenge against Obi Wan, or has his blood lust been directed toward far bigger prey, such as the Emperor?

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Hopefully Star Wars Rebels will answer all of these questions, and not leave us hanging once again.

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