Lucasfilm's initial plan to bring back Maul in too similar to The Mandalorian.
It's no secret that the Obi-Wan Kenobi show has gone through a couple of iterations. After it was reworked to be a small screen project from being a film, its original story was also changed. Instead of focusing on Darth Vader, it was supposed to bring back Maul, who, according to a brand new report, was going to be one of the bad guys going after Obi-Wan and a child-aged Luke Skywalker. It's uncertain why exactly the villains will be hunting down the duo, but The Mandalorian's Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni raised concerns that it would have the same Lone Wolf and Cub narrative that The Mandalorian was tackling. So, Obi-Wan Kenobi's narrative was reworked.
However, aside from covering the same story ground as The Mandalorian, Lucasfilm pushing forward with this original Obi-Wan Kenobi story would have ruined Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace, the fight was quickly finished after Maul committed a fatal mistake, while Obi-Wan took advantage of it. Before Maul died in the arms of his rival, however, he confirmed that Luke Skywalker was the Chosen One, hopefully predicting that he would "avenge us all" against Emperor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid). If the Obi-Wan Kenobi series revealed that the Maul somehow knew of Luke's existence before his final duel with the titular Jedi Master, the pair's somber last conversation would not have the same emotional impact as it did.
In addition to diminishing the weight of their final encounter in Star Wars Rebels, Maul appearing in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series would have also effectively created a new Star Wars plot hole. As per DisneyXD animated series, Maul didn't know that Obi-Wan survived Order 66. In fact, after he learned about this, he had a hysterical reaction to it, and for a while, it was unclear if he was happy or mad that the Jedi Master was still around. Ultimately, he found Obi-Wan in Tatooine where he also met his end. Despite his antagonistic demeanor towards Obi-Wan at first, coaxing him into a battle, it's clear that Maul had long realized that his real enemy was not the Jedi but Emperor Palpatine. He attempted to amass his own following by recruiting a young Padawan, Ezra Bridger, but when that failed, he realized that personally seeking revenge was a long shot. Yet, despite this, Maul dies peacefully knowing that there's hope with Luke being the Chosen One.
Oftentimes, the animated pocket of Star Wars is disregarded when talking about the space opera. However, some of its best storytelling is actually these shows. That includes Maul and Obi-Wan's final duel in Star Wars Rebels which arguably is one of the greatest fight scenes in the franchise. As interesting as it is to think of how the pair's reunion in Obi-Wan Kenobi would have looked like, it was for the better that Lucasfilm scrapped Maul's planned appearance in the show.
Obi-Wan Kenobi will start streaming on Disney+ this May.
