Solo: A Star Wars Story’s voice actor Sam Witwer revealed dramatic changes during a reshoot of Darth Maul’s scene.
During a cameo appearance in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Sam Witwer along with Dave Filoni requested a reshoot of Darth Maul’s scene. Witwer noticed details in the portrayal of Darth Maul which, he stated, were inconsistent with the character from The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars.
It has been nearly 20 years since Maul made an appearance in live-action since his death in The Phantom Menace. He served as Darth Sidious’ (Ian McDiarmid) apprentice before a battle with Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) ended with him being presumed dead. The Clone Wars revealed Maul was very much alive and he would go on to appear in Star Wars Rebels and Solo. In his return in Solo, Maul becomes the master of a crime syndicate that Dryden Vos (Paul Bettany) ran before being killed by Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke), Tobias Beckett (Woody Harrelson), Han Solo (Alden Ehrenreich), and Chewbacca (Joonas Suotamo) in a failed mission. Qi’ra informs Maul of the failed mission and she is then summoned by Maul.
Speaking to Star Wars Holocron Blog, Witwer revealed that he noticed many discrepancies with the version of Maul in the initial Solo script and that he was clear with Lucasfilm he needed to be brought in for the role. He replaced the original voice actor, Peter Serafinowicz, who voiced Maul in The Phantom Menace. According to Witwer, Serafinowicz also realized it wasn’t working the way they thought it would. He stated:
Serafinowicz has even said that he recorded stuff for Maul and it didn’t quite work the way that they thought it would.
After being cast, Witwer shared his issues with Maul’s character, including his voice at the returning scene and other small details in the script, and the creative team were happy to make the changes. He stated:
There was stuff that had to happen once I got hired. There was a reshoot that had to happen because people like me and Dave Filoni were letting them know there were a lot of details that weren’t consistent. That’s not me saying these people didn’t know what they were doing because they were making a movie and doing it at lightspeed. Ultimately, they did the right thing because they hired the people who were the experts on this like Dave Filoni and, I dare say, me, because I’m kind of an expert on what we’ve been doing with Maul for the past decade, y’know? They were very open to hearing what we had to say and, again, they were so open that they did a reshoot.
According to Witwer, Maul’s return in Solo was harder than creating “spider-Maul” in Clone Wars. The three-minute cameo had to get every detail right so that the fans, who understood the Shadow Collective, would make the connection in the scene. He especially emphasized Maul’s voice had to be familiar to the fans and since he has voiced Maul for ten years, he would be the perfect fit.
Unfortunately, Maul's Solo cameo proved to be one of the film's more divisive elements. While some felt it was a great way to tie different mediums of Star Wars canon together, others criticized the scene for being meaningless fan service that distracted from Han's arc in the movie. Maul's big screen return wasn't the rousing success the filmmakers hoped for (and it came in Star Wars' first box office flop), but it's still nice to see Witwer's dedication to the role and make sure the character's portrayal was accurate. If he hadn't done that, than Solo's surprise cameo might have been even more polarizing. And Lucasfilm also deserves some credit for being willing to go along with the suggested changes, doing what they could to improve the film.
Source: Star Wars Holocron Blog