Darth Maul’s Original Design Inspired Star Wars Bounty Hunter [EXCLUSIVE]

Star Wars Bounty Hunter‘s Komari Vosa made an impression when she debuted back in 2002. Her character differed from any previous on-screen Sith, with palpable pain and an unhinged persona. Yet, she wasn’t a solitary Star Wars creation, as she was inspired by prior, unreleased Sith concepts, including the original concept art for Darth Maul.

When The Phantom Menace released in 1999, the film disappointed legions of fans, but one constant source of praise existed: Darth Maul. Oozing confidence and swagger, Maul devoured his every scene. Despite speaking only a handful of words, he delighted fans and created a devout following. However, Maul’s original appearance was quite different and gave off a much more disturbing attitude.

During an interview with Screen Rant, Jon Knoles, Star Wars Bounty Hunter’s creative director, described how he got inspiration from Ian McCaig’s dark conception of the Sith, including his original vision of Darth Maul. Knoles said this version of Darth Maul was “deemed too scary” as he evoked terror with “lots of scars” and a “thorned headdress.” Pale, sickly, and visibly damaged, this more pained conception of a Sith helped to inspire Knoles to create the broken Komari Vosa.

Star Wars Bounty Hunter Shows The Visible Trauma of the Sith

Komari Vosa, a former padawan, is secretly trained in the ways of the Sith by Count Dooku while he is still a Jedi Master. Denied the status of Jedi Knight by the council, and subsequently cast aside by Dooku, Vosa stows away on a Jedi mission to stop the Bando Gora, a vicious cult. Captured, brutalized, and brainwashed, Vosa eventually takes control of the Bando Gora by demonstrating her power and killing her fellow prisoners. With the Bando Gora in her control, she then perpetuates the same horror she experienced.

Knoles explained that Vosa’s scars came from “poison-tipped finger claws” and that she uses that same poison to defile the minds of others. In Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, Vosa mixes death sticks with Bando Gora’s neurotoxin to create a potent poison that enables her to control legions of slaves. Vosa lacks the tact of Palpatine and the resolve of Vader; instead, she is filled with a passionate rage that she has no interest in tempering.

When Darth Maul eventually returned to the Star Wars canon thanks to Clone Wars, his persona resembled that of Vosa more than his former self. Maul’s battle with Obi-Wan Kenobi broke his mind and body. When the audience is introduced to Maul again, he resides on a trash planet with spider-legs made from scrap. He survived being cut in half, but his mind is fractured. Only once the mystical Mother Talzin performs some dark magic is Maul even able to make a coherent senetence. From that point onwards, Maul is driven purely by rage and acts out with wanton viscionsess. Shouting and screaming, he murders his way across the galaxy. Gone is his reserved former self. With half of a body and aching pain, Darth Maul’s journey ultimately ends up with him finally resembling the twisted, broken character hinted at in his original concept art.

Darth Maul’s spooky, terrorized origins inspired Vosa’s creation just has her tragic, traumatized story foreshadows Maul’s descent into madness. Brutal but broken, both Star Wars Bounty Hunter’s Vosa and the franchise’s Maul leave indelible impressions as monsters born from tremendous suffering.

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