A Detailed History of Every Video Game to Feature Darth Maul

Ever since Darth Maul lit up his double-sided lightsaber in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, he's been a fan favorite character thanks to his sheer rule of cool. Very wisely, the developers at LucasArts were quick to capitalize on fan hype, putting the demon-horned Sith Lord in countless video games over the years, letting fans utilize his speed and ferocity in battle.

For as long as Maul has existed, he's been a staple in Star Wars video games, appearing as the final boss in several early titles before becoming a fan-favorite playable character. He'd even go on to represent the Star Wars brand in other games, appearing as a cameo in a few unexpected collaborations.

With Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord's filling in the gaps between the events of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and his appearance in Star Wars: Rebels, we're taking a look back at Maul's legacy in video games and how the character has evolved over the years.

1999-2007: Building the Character

Darth Maul would make his gaming debut in the official 1999 PSX tie-in game, Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, as the game's final boss. Interestingly enough, the game gave Maul generic evil villain dialogue to help flesh out the character and make the boss battle feel a bit more climactic.

LucasArts was quick to capitalize on Mual appearing in several other games a few short months after, with his first time as a playable character arriving in Star Wars Episode 1: Jedi Power Battles. Once beating him at the end of the game, you'll actually unlock Maul himself and get to run through the campaign again playing as him. Unfortunately, players did not get to use his double-bladed lightsaber, but you did get to use some cool new Sith powers to make up for that.

The PlayStation 1 era was fairly short-lived for Star Wars games, as only a year after the first prequel film was released, the PlayStation 2 would become available across the world, boasting a mighty hardware upgrade. The first Xbox would also be released, with a major graphics upgrade that would give the Sith Lord the respect he deserved.

In 2001, the games would start to get a bit silly. Maul would also appear as a playable character in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, donning his dual-bladed lightsaber while performing Ollies. If you want to see a truly cursed rendition of Maul with what can only be described as a Cocomelon abomination, you can in Star Wars: Super Bombad Racing.

If you've never heard of this game before, it's because it's one of the ugliest games of all time, and has been rightfully shelved from existence. Thankfully, the franchise would quickly redeem itself and Maul's integrity in a better racing game, Star Wars: Racer Revenge, released the following year.

Cursed racing games aside, nearly all of Maul's first appearances in games placed him in reimaginings of his battle with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon at the end of The Phantom Menace and do little to expand on the character. Thankfully, future games would do a far superior job of representing everyone's favorite Sith underdog.

2005-2013: Cementing Maul as the Series' Video Game Icon

It would be an understatement to say that the Star Wars prequel games took some time to find their footing. Thankfully, the franchise would reach an all-time peak in 2005, which can be argued as the greatest year for Star Wars games ever. In that year alone, we saw the release of certified classics such as Star Wars: Battlefront 2 and LEGO: Star Wars, which are still heavily revered to this day.

Darth Maul would join these massive ensemble casts as a playable character, finally letting players wield his dual-bladed lightsaber to its full potential. For the next few years, Maul would go on to feature in sequels to the games as a playable character, retaining his menacing aura to all who'd oppose him.

He'd also appear as a surprise boss battle in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed as one of Proxy's toughest training modules. This would also mark the first time Sam Witwer, the voice of Starkiller, would also get to voice Darth Maul, setting the groundwork for Witwer's fantastic take on the character in years to come.

In the early 2010s, developers Red Fly Studio approached LucasArts about the idea for a Darth Maul video game titled "Star Wars: Battle of the Sith Lords". The idea for the game would follow a younger Maul before he became a Sith Lord, showing how he would need to lean on the dark side to survive his traumatic upbringing.

It was also around this time that Clone Wars creator Dave Filoni and George Lucas were beginning to hint that Darth Maul would be returning to the series, having survived his battle with Obi-Wan on Naboo. This sparked the developers to start planning their game series out as a trilogy for the character, but the game would unfortunately be killed off as part of Disney's acquisition of Star Wars. They would attempt to pitch the game to Disney and EA (who had sole publishing rights), but both companies weren't interested.

Thankfully, the new robot-legs-wearing Maul would appear in both Clone Wars Adventures and Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, cementing his place back in canon.

2015-Now: The EA Era of Star Wars Games

With Disney's 2012 acquisition of Star Wars, the company shut down LucasArts' video game operations and enlisted EA as the sole company responsible for future games. Unfortunately, this meant that output for new Star Wars games significantly slowed down to a crawl.

The first game to feature Darth Maul post-Disney's ownership was, interestingly enough, Disney Infinity 3.0 in 2015. If you're unfamiliar with Disney Infinity, it was a toys-to-life game similar to the Skylanders series, which saw players purchase toys that they could then play with in the game.

In this version of the game, the developers focused on a number of different eras depicted in the Star Wars universe, with one focused on The Clone Wars. Which was pretty neat, as it contained an all-new story fully voiced by the same cast as The Clone Wars TV series, and featured Maul as its main antagonist.

While EA's period of Star Wars saw far less output of AAA Star Wars releases, there were several Mobile Games that would pop up over the years, including Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, Star Wars: Force Arena, and Star Wars: Jedi Challenges, which featured Maul in some capacity. Sadly, only Galaxy of Heroes remains active to this day. However, they've gone on to add three different kinds of Maul, with one depicting his Phantom Menace debut, another showcasing his role as the leader of the Mandalorians, and most recently, his creepy spider

legs version.

But his most recent and iconic appearance in gaming comes from the new Star Wars: Battlefront 2, made by DICE and released in 2017. This version of the game arguably captures the character at his best as you get to spin through mobs of other players, throw them off ledges like they're a Padawan Kenobi, and sprint around the map like a madman.

Sadly, the last appearance Maul would make in a Star Wars game was actually in a 2023 collaboration with Fortnite, which allowed players to equip Maul's appearance (alongside a LEGO variant) as a skin in the game. Once again, players couldn't use his double-bladed lightsaber, unfortunately, meaning Tony Hawk Pro Skater wins in the "best cameo" category here.

With Maul: Shadow Lord focusing on the once Sith Lord and his rise as a crime lord, we may see the character pop up in more games in the future. Unfortunately, there may have been potential to see a few hints of the character show up in a sequel to the smuggler-focused Star Wars: Outlaws, but it's rumored that plans for a follow-up have been scrapped.

But if Shadow Lords' success is anything to go by, we hopefully won't be waiting long for another chance to see the character in an all-new video game soon.