Big Perv

Star Wars Insider: He was once the puppet, but in The Clone Wars, Maul started seizing control for himself and becoming the puppeteer. Does that energy carry into this series?

Sam Witwer: Definitely. In the opening episodes, you see him pulling strings, trying to build a new power base. His plan is ambitious, but he struggles with whether he's the puppet master or the guy who goes and takes care of things himself. He doesn't delegate well. He's so used to being the one who handles everything personally that he often still goes off to do it when maybe he shouldn't. Delegation is very difficult. He doesn't trust easily.

He does have a few people he relies on to an extent. Rook Kast is his first lieutenant, and their relationship is interesting because Maul actually listens to her. He's learned that people have valuable points of view and that, unlike Palpatine, he needs to hear bad news sometimes. So, he's figuring out what it really means to be a shadow lord.

Star Wars Insider: We've seen different facets of Maul's personality through moments of trauma— like what happened to his brother, Savage Opress, being discarded by Palpatine. What new aspects of him did you get to explore this time?

Sam Witwer: You don't dare bring this character back unless there's something interesting to say. There are traits and emotions we're digging into.

He's very angry at Palpatine. He understands now that that guy is the root of his suffering. He got that by the time of Rebels. In Shadow Lord he sees it even clearer. Everywhere he looks in the Empire, he sees Palpatine's hand. If Maul's going to shake his fist at him, he has to believe he's somehow superior to Palpatine. If he's not, then he deserves everything that happened to him. That's the starting point: he's exploring who he is and also thinking about his brother, Savage Opress, his first apprentice and family.

Did he treat him as well as he should've, considering how loyal Savage was? No. But now he's finally assessing that and realizing, "I failed him."

Star Wars Insider: That's a heavy idea for Maul to consider at all.

Sam Witwer: It is. There's a grand reassessment of every part of his life. He was trained to hate and destroy the Jedi without ever questioning it. Now he's looking at the galaxy going, "Boy, we could sure use a Jedi Knight or two." At least with the Jedi you knew where they stood. There's something to respect there. This Empire, he sees no values there, just the naked grab for influence, power, and money. Principles are gone. And he looks at that with a certain level of distaste. He may not have agreed with the Jedi Knights, but at least they had principles. You knew who you were dealing with and you could reason with that. There's no reasoning with the Empire.

This show is bad guys versus worse guys, and Maul's on the bad-guy side of that equation.

Star Wars Insider: In the past, you've mentioned parallels between Maul and Anakin Skywalker. How do you see their paths diverging?

Sam Witwer: Vader bought into Palpatine's plan completely. Even if he had doubts, he was all in. Maul never was, not really. Maybe in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, but everything that happened afterwards changed him. He's still the same ruthless, dangerous figure in the new show— if you cross him, you're done— and he still manipulates people. But he's drawn new lines he won't cross. There are new behaviors that might make a viewer think, "He kind of has a point."

One of the magical things about Maul is that he tells the truth a lot. He told the truth to Ahsoka. Everything he said was true, and he was the only character who had a workable plan when the Empire was about to come to power. He just blew the pitch.

Star Wars Insider: His "join me" moment with Ahsoka didn't go quite as planned.

Sam Witwer: [Laughs] No! He assumed that because they'd both been cast out by their orders, she'd share his hatred. He told her, "Good news: we get to kill your old master." And she was like, "That's my best friend." Huge miscalculation. In Shadow Lord, he's more aware of that mistake. He's learning how to say things in ways people can actually hear. He's figuring out how to filter his message. He's more aware of how badly that went down and how not to repeat it.

The other thing is that their duel on Mandalore, that was a tough fight for Maul. He didn't know how to pitch that battle because he was trying to preserve Ahsoka's life. He knows how to create chaos. He doesn't know how to get this person on his side. When he finally lets the dark side take over— when he decides nothing matters— he's unstoppable. In this new series, he's learned to fight in other ways, too. He's learning to use words, manipulation, persuasion. He's realizing there's responsibility behind every action. That's new territory for Maul.

Star Wars Insider: It's been a little while since you last played the character. What clicked-or didn't when you stepped back into the recording booth?

Sam Witwer: I know how to play Maul, but we didn't want to go easy on ourselves. Brad Rau and I wanted to experiment. Brad's a genius. He was the brilliant showrunner of The Bad Batch and a wonderful collaborator. We had a few go-arounds before we hit the right tone. People will say, "Oh, that's Maul," but every time he's returned, he's been a different version. He's different in The Phantom Menace, different in The Clone Wars, different again in Rebels. This one is distinct but closest to how he was at the end of Clone Wars.

Star Wars Insider: You got to reunite with many of the same collaborators from the previous animated series. Did it feel like getting the band back together?

Sam Witwer: Definitely. Matt Michnovetz has been writing this stuff forever. I would bring up an idea and he'd go, "Well, remember Clone Wars Season 3, Episode 17..." and pull some deep cut.

There are producers, and then there are nuclear producers like Athena Portillo, who was so devoted to getting things right that she wouldn't let us fail. She built in contingencies and gave us time to experiment before we had to send any episodes out. She locked several completely but kept the early ones open so we could go back and revise them once we had learned how to make the show better. She's the kind of leader who solves problems before anyone else knows they even exist.

Keith Kellogg in animation, Joel Aron in lighting— they've given the show a new look that's more in line with how Maul sees the galaxy: dangerous and extreme. David Collins, who I've worked with for 18 years, has created the soundscape. It's unlike anything we've heard in Star Wars before. Closer to THX 1138. It sounds like a weird feature film, not a TV show. Dave Filoni gave us the mandate to do everything better: acting, scripts, story, cinematography, sound. He told us to push everything further. We built this subplot that wasn't in the scripts and what came out of it is one of my favorite things we've ever done with the character. It's strange, emotional, and absolutely Star Wars.

Star Wars Insider: That sounds like an amazing creative environment.

Sam Witwer: It really was. Everyone has been pushing the boundaries. We've tried things you wouldn't imagine, like me shooting reference footage for complex, emotional scenes, so the animators could see how my eyes and expressions worked. We've even used some practical photography tricks that no one will recognize because it all looks painted, but they solved problems in old-school fashion, like the guys at Industrial Light & Magic back in the day.