Arguably the biggest shock of the year for Star Wars fans came at the end of Solo: A Star Wars Story. As the movie wraps up, the big boss of Crimson Dawn is revealed to be none other than Darth Maul. The red-faced Sith Lord was thought to be dead by the majority of the movie-going public, but who had been revealed in Clone Wars to have survived his encounter with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Going into the movie if you had told me Maul is in it, I probably would’ve laughed in your face. There was no way that I’d believe Lawrence Kasdan and Ron Howard were going to reference a cartoon in their big blockbuster movie.
How wrong I was.
Maul’s reveal in Solo, showed that the Story Group and the creators were paying attention to the larger Star Wars canon and not just what we had seen in the movies. No longer were there two Star Wars, the one in the books and comics and the one in the films. Now it truly was one larger cohesive universe.
An early selling point for Marvel’s Cinematic Universe was “It’s all connected” as the TV shows directly referenced moments in the films. However, as time has gone on for Marvel and the MCU. Those connections have dwindled. The movies feel like they are telling one story while the TV shows are only tangentially connected, if at all. Solo proved that Star Wars is willing to take the step that Marvel seems hesitant to do, having the movies directly reference something from the TV show.
Personally, I think Maul’s reveal in Solo works whether you’ve seen Clone Wars or not. It’s clear that he is a very bad man even if you don’t recognize him as the same Sith Lord we saw get cut in half on Naboo so many years ago.
Currently, Jon Favreau is working on The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars TV show. Favreau has a history already with Star Wars, voicing roles in Clone Wars and in Solo. With his prior connections to the Mandalorians in Clone Wars, the door for possibilities is wide open. Will we see references to Pre Vizsla and Death Watch? Could characters like Bo Katan and Sabine show up? Earlier this year I would’ve said that those would be unlikely or mostly just throw away Easter eggs for the fans and not major plot points. Now, I’m not so sure. We could easily have a show focused on one of those characters or something else that was only revealed in Clone Wars or Rebels.
As a fan who tries to keep up with it all, the interconnectedness makes me happy. However, the creators and Story Group need to be careful as to not make something that is so dependent on prior knowledge that it is inaccessible to the general public. I trust that they will find the right balance and not make something that requires a reading list prior to watching. Canon is fun, but if you go too deep you lose people and you run the risk of being less a story and more of a Wikipedia article.
Author: Paul Depaola
Born in the desert, raised on the beach and now residing in the mountains. An obsessive, compulsive geek with a tendency to bring everything back to Star Wars. In his spare time he is TK-5990, a proud member of the 501st Legion. Paul is also the host of his own podcast, Fanboys Talking.