Though first introduced in Genndy Tartakovsky’s animated “Star Wars: Clone Wars” shorts in 2003, it was his one-off appearance in George Lucas’ “Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith” in 2005 when the part-organic, multi-limbed killer droid General Grievous became known to the wider public.
Recently Henry Gilroy, who worked as a writer on the subsequent 2008 launched “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” series and co-executive producer on “Star Wars: Rebels”, spoke with Slashfilm and revealed that Lucas allegedly considered making Grievous be a revived Darth Maul.
Maul was bisected by Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber in “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” his two halves tumbling down a shaft. Lucas opted ultimately to make Grievous a former Separatist General who similarly suffered brutal injuries.
As Gilroy explains, Lucas didn’t originate the idea but seriously considered it:
“George was considering that Grievous was Maul behind the armor plate. It made sense. He’s cut in half, and he’s in this robot body or whatever. I’m glad that Grievous is his own thing anyway, but I thought it was interesting that the concept guys almost talked George into that.”
Years later, Maul would be revived in the full ‘Clone Wars’ series where he procured robotic legs and his anger fuelled his need to survive – ultimately leading to a showdown with Obi-Wan on Tattooine in “Star Wars Rebels”.
Lucas spent years vowing never to bring Maul back, but halfway through the run of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” Lucas changed his mind. Gilroy, who had left the series by that point, says Dave Filoni called him one night:
“He is like, ‘Yeah, so yeah, George wants to bring back Maul.’ I’m like, ‘I knew he was going to do that. I knew it. I knew it.’ Because, the reason why is, George likes to see the things that he created. And his ideas are awesome, so you can’t argue with it.”
Gilroy was tasked with writing a short comic book story explaining how the former Sith survived at the end of ‘Phantom Menace’. He says: “George liked it. He’s like, ‘Oh, that’s good.’ So I’m like, ‘Oh, all right.'”
