In new concept-art stills for Star Wars: The Force Awakens, revealed by Indie Revolver, Maz Kanata is shown sitting with and teaching a group of what seem to be Jedi younglings…
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Indie Revolver has just revealed two new pieces of concept-art from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, that shows ancient yet spry space pirate — Maz Kanata — sitting with and possibly training what seem to be Jedi younglings. Just last week we told you about a report from Collider regarding a deleted scene from The Force Awakens, that had Maz using the Force to bring down the ceiling of a portion of her castle, to kill a group of First Order troopers, during the attack on Takodana.
"“There was a particular part of a scene that never made it, where they go underneath the castle and they’re going into the underground passageways, and stormtroopers are coming down the stairs and Maz uses her powers to collapse the ceiling.”"
We also know that J.J. Abrams told Entertainment Weekly he cut a scene with Maz returning to the Resistance base with Han and Leia, Chewie and Finn, because he felt there really was no reason to have Maz just standing around doing nothing, while everyone celebrated their brief victory.
"“That was a scene actually filmed, but we took out. At one point, Maz used to continue along with the characters back to the Resistance base, but we realized that she really had nothing to do there of value, except to be sitting around.”"
Now to the concept-art stills from IR. Remember, in The Force Awakens, Maz tells Rey “I am no Jedi, but I know the force.” Well, looking at these these pieces, it would appear as if J.J. and company did at one point intend to have Maz be a Yoda-esque character.
There you can see Maz giving instruction to a group of younglings, much like Yoda did in the prequels. This next art piece shows Maz in what she would look like in her Jedi robes.
As you you can see, J.J. decided to go with a different inspiration for Maz. Instead of the elongated neck, he went with his high school teacher, Mrs. Rose Gilbert.
Still, it will be interesting if we see Lupita Nyong’o return as Maz in Star Wars: Episode VIII. And if she does, will she heed her own words of advice to Han, and decide to finally get into the fight against the dark side? I would love to see a wizened old Maz helping Luke once again rebuild the Jedi Order with a new batch of younglings.