Star Wars Solo movie: How did Darth Maul survive? What is Crimson Dawn?

The first screenings of the movie revealed a huge shock as someone somehow came back from the dead.

The biggest shock in the Star Wars universe right now is just how badly the Solo movie is doing at the international box office.

Disney and Lucasfilm must be hoping the can figure out how to bring the franchise back to life after dividing fans with The Last Jedi and failing to interst them at all in Solo.

Sadly, they may need Dark Force arts just like a certain Sith apprentice…

Darth Maul wavers onto screen at the end of Solo as a hologram. He is revealed as the terrifying hidden boss of Dryden Vos and Qi’ra.

Maul has become a crime lord, the head of the fearsome Crimson Dawn cartel.

But how is he even alive and what is Crimson Dawn?

Maul was apparently killed by Obi-wan Kenobi is The phantom Menace and last seen plummeting down one of those convenient Star Wars shafts. If the fall didn’t kill him, presumable being cut clean in half would have.

Except the comics and animated series The Clone Wars revealed that he had survived, sustained by his hatred for Obi-Wan. Driven insane by his suffering and fury he scavenged metal spider legs and was eventually rescued by his brother, Savage Oppress.

Their mother, Dark Force witch Mother Talzin, healed his mind and gave him new robot legs.  

From there he began his life of crime, forming the Shadow Collective out of The Pyke Syndicate (seen in the Solo movie mining coaxium), the Hutts, the Madalorian Death watch and the Nightbrothers.

STAR WARS SOLO MOVIE: IS QI’RA REY’S MOTHER?

Never one to be subtle, Maul conquers Mandalore, defeating his Jedi nemesis when he attempts to dethrone him.

However, Maul was seen as a dangerous rival to Sidious, who attacks, kills Opress but mysteriously allows Maul to escape for his own nefarious reasons. The Shadow Collective quickly falls apart.

The Solo movie implies that Maul regrouped and created Crimson Dawn as a new power base.

STAR WARS SOLO: WILL DARTH MAUL APEAR IN THE OBI-WAN MOVIE NEXT?

In an alternate storyline in the comicbook series Star Wars: Darth Maul – Son of Dathomir, Maul and Dooku are deadly enemies and their battles lead to the collapse of the Shadow Collective.

The canon Star Wars stories all lead to Maul and Obi-Wan facing each other one last time when the Sith finally falls to a Jedi blade.

There had been great hope that Maul woudl feature in any Solo sequels, with Qi’ra summoned to his side, but more moveis seem unlikely after the current box office disaster.

Fans can now hope Maul will appear in the upcoming Obi-wan spin-off instead.

SOLO A STAR WARS STORY IS OUT NOW.