For anyone who is unfamiliar with the cruelest April Fool’s joke in history, IGN once posted a near minute-long trailer for a Star Wars Netflix series entitled Fury Of Maul. Unsurprisingly, the series looked absolutely epic, and Star Wars fans and casual viewers alike pointed out that this joke series sounded like a seriously good time.
Obviously Fury Of Maul is not a real series, but since the amount of Star Wars feature films and TV shows that are in production has absolutely exploded in the past few years, the prospect of a TV show about the mysterious and terrifying Sith known as Darth Maul sounds like a pretty realistic possibility. But, like any idea for a series, there are some pros and cons to a real life version of Fury Of Maul. Here’s 5 reasons that it should be real, and 5 reasons it shouldn’t.
Warning: Minor Spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker ahead.
Nay: Because Of The Clone Wars And Rebels
Although the idea of a live action series about Darth Maul is pretty brilliant, he is a character who has been explored with relative depth in the animated Star Wars shows. He has appeared in both The Clone Wars and Rebels, and although he is just a supporting antagonist he has still gotten a fair bit of screen time over the years.
He’s poised to appear on the upcoming seventh season of The Clone Wars, and although it would be cool to see him in his own individual series, it’s hard to justify giving him a huge platform when he’s already been a significant character in other shows.
Yay: Because We Can See Palpatine’s Master Plan
SPOILERS FOR Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker AHEAD, so beware. But as we’ve finally discovered at the end of the ninth installment into the Star Wars feature film franchise, Sheev Palpatine has pretty much been the puppet master of everything from the very start.
From The Phantom Menace to now, he has been working behind the scenes to bring the dark side into power over the galaxy. However, we’ve never gotten to know exactly how his plans first began, or how his relationship with Darth Maul even developed in the first place, and that would be fascinating subject matter for a series.
Nay: Because The Ending Is Already Spoiled
Obviously the end of a story isn’t the only part of a story that matters, but there is something to be said for the fact that we all know how Darth Maul’s story is going to end.
It would certainly be intriguing to know how he got to where he ended up, and since he is still a mysterious character there is a lot that could be fleshed out for him, but starting a Darth Maul series would basically be like reading a book when you’ve already read the last chapter years ago.
Yay: Because Darth Maul Is A Mystery
Every Star Wars fan was intimidated and fascinated the very moment that they laid eyes on Darth Maul. And although he has gotten some further character exploration beyond The Phantom Menace, he is in large part still a mystery.
The fact that two sith managed to exist without being discovered for so long is impressive, and although he’s one of the best villains in the entire Star Wars universe we all know very little about him, relatively speaking. There is no set recipe for success, but taking a popular and unexplored character and giving them their own show seems like a pretty great one.
Nay: Because There’s So Much More In This Universe
Darth Maul is a cool character who could likely carry his own TV show, however he’s also a character who has gotten a pretty good measure of screen time, and he’s a character who exists in a fictional universe that is literally the size of a galaxy and has thousands of years of potential material to mine from.
When the prospect of Fury of Maul is looked at from that perspective, it’s harder to justify why exactly Darth Maul is worth creating an entire television series around when there are pretty much limitless options to choose from.
Yay: So We Can See The Creation Of A Sith
Although the Sith have been the main antagonists in nearly every Star Wars film or series ever created, the universe of Star Wars hasn’t really explored the creation of the Sith all that much.
The majority of Sith characters that we’ve seen are either characters who are Sith by the time they come on the scene, or they are Jedi who are turned to the dark side at some point. It seems that Darth Maul was discovered by Palpatine and was trained to be a Sith from the get go, which would be a very interesting story to watch unfold.
Nay: Because It’s Too Late
Darth Maul is a badass character who has gotten a bit more character exploration in the recent Star Wars animated TV shows, however realistically speaking, the vast majority of audiences are only familiar with Darth Maul through The Phantom Menace.
At this point, the movie is over 20 years old, so there are Star Wars fans alive today who weren’t even born when The Phantom Menace was first released. The renewal of the Star Wars franchise does demonstrate that it’s never too late, but if a Darth Maul series was a possibility, it’s one that should have been explored about a decade earlier at least.
Yay: Because We Want To Explore The Dark Side
One of the reasons just one or two Sith have managed to throw the entire galaxy into chaos is that they are extremely clever when it comes to operating in the shadows and executing their plans without anyone else being the wiser.
And having this dark and shadowy threat looming over the galaxy is a good antagonistic element, it would be really neat to actually be able to see these nefarious plans as they are formed and as they unfold. Clearly Darth Maul and Darth Sidious were experts at the long game, and it’d be fascinating to know exactly how and why.
Nay: Because It Will Destroy The Mystique
Frankly, when Darth Maul first came on the scene he seemed like this completely unexplained demonic force that was nearly unstoppable, and that really worked for his character.
And while seeing more of the man behind the curtain could be interesting, it could end up much like the wizard in the Wizard Of Oz, something that seemed amazing at first glance but that is ultimately a total disappointment. Darth Maul’s mystique is a huge part of what made the character work so well in the first place, so taking that away may be a huge mistake.
Yay: Because It Can Be
Many people might ask why Star Wars: The Fury Of Maul should be real, but a question that can be asked at this point is, why not?
Now that Disney has acquired the rights to Star Wars they can do anything that they want with it, and given the rate at which they’re producing Star Wars material it seems like they are going all in on this legendary franchise. They’ve already hit the ground running with The Mandalorian, and there’s no reason why they should shy away from creating a TV series around a character like Darth Maul.
