Darth Maul Lives! And he's coming to 'Star Wars: The Clone Wars' this spring

He's alive!

That's right. As unlikely as it may seem, Darth Maul, the glowering Sith warrior who fell to Obi-Wan Kenobi's blade at the end of Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace actually survived being cut in half and will return to George Lucas's still unfolding space saga on Cartoon Network's Star Wars: The Clone Wars (read our recaps here!) in spring 2012.

With his red-and-black tattooed face, Bronson-esque stoicism, Dervish-like mixed martial-arts moves (courtesy of Ray Park), and legendary double-bladed lightsaber—the coolest birthday present for 10-year-old boys in the summer of 1999—Maul was easily the most striking character in The Phantom Menace. (TPM is due to be released in theaters with a 3-D facelift February 10, 2012). And he only had three lines in the movie! Maul was a blunt instrument, a weapon of pure aggression to carry out the bidding of ūber Sith Lord Darth Sidious (a.k.a the future Emperor Palpatine), when he wasn't yet ready to emerge from the shadows. Think of Maul like the Star Wars equivalent of Daniel Craig's Bond. Only, did we mention he had a frickin' double-bladed lightsaber?

When he was vivisected courtesy of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Maul immediately took his place among pop culture figures who'd also been cut in half: Bishop in Aliens, Quint in Jaws, Tony Goldwyn in Ghost, the Black Dahlia. Needless to say, we never expected to see him again, right?

Wrong! Last January a Clone Wars arc featuring a relative of Maul's, the duped, sympathetic Nightbrother of Dathomir Savage Opress teased a hazy image of Maul in a crystal ball. Did this mean the former Sith Warrior was still alive? Indeed, and EW's got an exclusive video first look at Maul's animated form. Take a walk on the Dark Side and check it out after the break:

"I found it funny in The Phantom Menace when Darth Maul got cut in half," Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni says. "I thought George was definitively saying to the fans, 'There's no way this character is coming back. This is not a Boba Fett/Sarlacc Pit situation where, because of fan love, Boba gets out of that thing any number of ways.' Fast-forward ten-years, and I'm the one to bring Maul back."

Well, mostly. Filoni acknowledges that the order to resurrect the Sith Lord came from George Lucas himself, who became more interested in his Phantom Menace creation while developing Savage Opress for the last season of The Clone Wars. Awesome as Maul was in the movie, he barely got to do anything before the old chop-chop. When asked if Maul's return is motivated by the feeling that he was underutilized in The Phantom Menace, Filoni says, "I think in part."

Filoni's biggest challenge, though, will come from the legions of fans ready to shout "No way!" at the very idea of a Maul return. But addressing the (un)believability of his survival could make for some interesting drama. "First of all, how does he survive getting cut in half?" says Filoni. "Plus, he fell! And also, don't forget Obi-Wan Kenobi is still around, so I'm sure Maul wouldn't be very happy with him."

Fans will note that there is precedent for this kind of resurrection. "The Dark Side of the Force is the path to many abilities some consider to be...unnatural," Darth Sidious says in Revenge of the Sith. Sidious and his master found a way to use the Force to cheat death—that's how he was able to keep Vader alive after that little swan dive into a lava field. Couldn't Maul have picked up on some of that too? Says Filoni, "He's suffered through a lot to keep himself alive and implemented the training of his master to do so."

Once you get beyond the plausibility issues, what's left is actually an amazing storytelling opportunity. The Clone Wars has featured other characters from the movies, but mostly original trilogy stalwarts like Chewbacca, Tarkin, and Ackbar. Those are all characters whose fates have already been decided. "Here, we're moving forward with Maul," Filoni says. "He's more than ten years older than he was in The Phantom Menace. That's immensely satisfying, because now nobody knows what's going to happen to him. I know, but nobody else does."

Who said all the biggest Star Wars stories have already been told? Fellow fanatics, are you going to hop along for the ride this spring? Until then, keep yourself up to date on all the latest Clone Wars news here. And every Friday night a new Clone Wars episode airs, watch it with us on viEWer!

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[SethBrundleify]

Maul and Vader. Both were dameged by Obi Wan, Both Sith Lords and both become more machine then man.

[kendallsilverberg85]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! is it not bad enough lucas turned the son of the most powerful sith into a panzie, u cannot kill qui-gon and live to tell the tale, he has to die. violently

[thecakeistruth]

@FreshChibi1337 hhaha cn doesnt have anything to do with star wars esep show it

[TIllAllAreOne100]

YES!!!!!!!!

[TheMrtaco6]

@FreshChibi1337 listen here dumbass sith are superhuman they can survive getting cut in half sometimes and maul was one of the luckty ones

[monkeywithagun8]

guys darth maul does return but not to kill republic or sepratists. savage opress searches for him and finds him hoping maul can teach him the ways of the force soo he can become stonger. savage opress later comes back stronger than almost any jedi

THUMPS UP SOO PPL CAN SEE

[FreshChibi1337]

CN is the shittiest network in TV, destroying Star Wars and giving children false hope in life -.-

fuck CN...

[Aut0Tun3DMice]

well, i can see this being possible, and actually, i can DEFINITELY see this as a way to add to the already epic character of Maul. I mean, if Anakin can survive being burnt to a crisp in lava, then Maul should be able to survive being cut in half. It makes sense.

Besides, The Clone Wars needs a true baddie like Maul, and not some whiney over-used robot on steroids (thumbs up for knowing who i'm talking about ;D )

[013jared]

this isn't bullshit in a comic of star wars a couple years back there was a story between a new hope and revenge of the sith, telling the story of luke as a little boy and his uncle in the dessert and they see a figure with a mechanical lower body and it was maul attempting to kill luke and then obi wan comes and cuts off maul's horn

[DarthBuddy96]

@MaulKiller1337 yahcI guess it was possible for him to survive :)