Han Solo movie: Didn't Obi Wan KILL Darth Maul years BEFORE? Star Wars timeline explained

Yes, Obi-Wan Kenobi does actually kill Darth Maul but not in The Phantom Menace like most people still think.

That movie famously showed the Sith apprentice impale Qui Gon Jinn before the Jedi’s own apprentice took revenge.

Obi-Wan executed the first of his two classic ‘higher ground’ tricks as he hurtled up from the shaft and cut Darth Maul neatly in two. That’s right – completely, totally, unequivocally cut him into two separate pieces.

So how is Darth Maul alive years later during the Solo movie?

Darth Maul’s shock appearance at the end of the Solo movie as Dryden Voss and Qi’ra’s terrifying hidden Crimson Dawn master will confuse many film fans, but not dedicated Star Wars followers.

In the canon spin-off books, comics and TV show, Star Wars The Clone Wars, Maul make an extraordinary comeback.

His hatred for Obi-Wan is so powerful it sustains his life, despite his catastrophic injuries, and he escapes to the lowlife world of Lotho Minor.  

It gets more and more bizarre from there.

Mad with hatred and rage, Maul scavengers junk and builds himself metal spider legs.

Luckily he has a powerful family and his Dark Force witch mother Talzin sends his brother, the fantastically modestly named Savage Opress, to bring him to her.

Talzin works her (dark) magic, restores Maul’s mind and gives him new robot legs (this would all explain Maul’s battered appearance and teh glimpse of his artificial legs in that hologram cameo scene).

After seeking out Obi-Wan to kill him and failing badly more than once, Maul decides to build his power in a different way – in the criminal underground.

He is hugely successful, becoming the ruler of Mandalore, and even defeating the pesky Obi-Wan when he attempts to dethrone him.

However, Maul is now seen as a dangerous budding rival to his old master, Darth Sidious, who comes in great force and kills Opress in teh ensuing battle but mysteriously allows Maul to escape for his own nefarious reasons.

Maul then wages a personal war on the Jedi and the Sith as he rebuilds his crime empire. This, presumably leads to him creating or taking over the Crimson Dawn. His eventual death comes many years later in one last duel with his old Jedi nemesis.

The best news of all is that he will surely reappear on screen. Either if a Han Sol sequel goes ahead or if the planned Obi-Wan spin-off.

SOLO A STAR WARS STORY IS OUT NOW