Spoilers for Solo: A Star Wars Story to follow…
The secret cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story was a true surprise and it turns out Ron Howard pushed hard for it to happen.
Solo is packed full of exciting moments and interesting Star Wars easter eggs, but there was nothing more surprising than when Darth Maul made a shock return to the big screen towards the film’s end.
It is revealed that Maul is the mysterious force behind Crimson Dawn, the crime syndicate that forces Han and friends to team up for the film’s heist. It turns out that fans can largely thank Ron Howard for Maul’s cameo as once the director had read the script and new that Maul was an option to be the secretive “boss” behind events, it was something he had to make happen.
Speaking to /Film, Howard said: “It just sort of said “Boss” [in the script]. And I thought when I came in, I assumed they knew who it was and they were just keeping it under wraps. And they didn’t. But Maul was listed as one of the candidates. And I lobbied hard for that. I thought that made a lot of sense to me. I found that character to be really effective. And I knew for a fact, without asking directly and giving anything away, my son Reed who just turned 31, who’s a dedicated Star Wars fan, he’s a golfer. He’s not in the business. Dedicated Star Wars fan. I just whispered that possibility and he just thought that would be incredibly cool. And so for that generation, I thought, well that was gonna be a pretty interesting idea. And doing a little more research and understanding sort of how the character had worked elsewhere, I thought it was good. And the Kasdans were on board with that.”
There was a good reason for the Kasdans to be onboard as it turns out as Jon Kasdan had always intended the character to be Maul and made sure to include subtle clues in the script to convince everyone else that it was a good idea.
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A new adventure with the most beloved scoundrel in the galaxy. Through a series of daring escapades deep within a dark and dangerous criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his mighty future copilot Chewbacca and encounters the notorious gambler Lando Calrissian, in a journey that will set the course of one of the Star Wars saga’s most unlikely heroes.
Solo: A Star Wars Story features Alden Ehrenreich (Hail, Caesar!) as the famous smuggler, Donald Glover (Atlanta) as Lando Calrissian, Woody Harrelson (War for the Planet of the Apes) as Tobias Beckett, Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca, Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag) as L3-37, Emilia Clarke (Game of Thrones) as Qi’Ra, Thandie Newton (Westworld) as Val, Ian Kenny (Sing Street) as Rebolt, Harley Durst (Wonder Woman) as Moloch, Jon Favreau (Spider-Man: Homecoming) as Rio Durant, Paul Bettany (Avengers: Infinity War) as Dryden Vos and Warwick Davis (Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi) as Weazel.
