The most shocking moment in Solo: A Star Wars Story comes when it's revealed that Darth Maul is the mastermind behind Crimson Dawn. His cameo appearance in the movie was never even rumoured so the fact he shows up here obviously leaves us with a lot of questions about where things go from here.
During a recent interview, Lawrence Kasdan explained why he was always excited about bringing the character into the fold and reveals that there are hints throughout the movie pointing to Maul.
"I was passionate about him all the way through. I sort of had planted the seeds early and I wanted it to be built that way. And I wanted to reference certain forms of martial arts that might lead to it. And the presence of someone who was so terrifying in this crime world that you had to know he was the guy who could control someone like Dryden. So he was part of the DNA of the thing."
Asked to elaborate on Maul's presence in Solo, he again pointed to it fleshing out Dryden Vos' backstory. "The line we love and keep referring to is, “we’ve seen some strange stuff across the galaxy.” And we did really want to honor the line that he’s seen some weird stuff. And that’s why we thought it would be great for him to encounter a Jules Verne-type creature out in deep space, and made his experiences that have made his life rich and pressed the limits of what are possible."
Han has, of course, always been rather sceptical of the Force so if he ever encounters Maul (which seems highly likely if we get a sequel to this movie), wouldn't that change how he feels about the Jedi in A New Hope? Kasdan went on to explain why he doesn't necessarily think that might be the case.
"I don’t think so. Because that’s part of what I love about this story. He doesn’t believe in the force and we know that ahead of time. But he doesn’t ever have to! The only acceptance he has – over three movies that I wrote! – is so slim. He never really comes to believe. He’s always the skeptic."
So, if we do get to revisit Han at some point, it sounds like there's a very good chance he could cross paths with Darth Maul without it changing the timeline in a significant way. What do you guys think?