Star Wars Was Smart To Cast Ray Park As Darth Maul (& Not Benicio Del Toro)

Ray Park's performance as Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace singularly defined the character in Star Wars, but Benicio Del Toro held the role first.

Despite being a left-field choice at the time, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was right to cast Ray Park as Darth Maul after Benicio Del Toro left the project. First released domestically on May 19th, 1999, Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace opened to a mixed bag of reviews, with George Lucas’ much-hyped prequel movie failing to live up to the almost impossible levels of expectations set by the original Star Wars trilogy 16 years prior. Yet despite not scaling the heights of its predecessor, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, The Phantom Menace did make some inspired casting decisions that have iconically endured in contemporary culture.

Characters such as Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn remain hugely popular within the Star Wars franchise despite the Jedi master’s limited screen time, while Ewan McGregor’s portrayal of Obi-Wan Kenobi has become synonymous with the character, as evidenced by Disney+’s upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series. The Phantom Menace further showcased George Lucas’ keen eye for burgeoning talent, with both Natalie Portman’s Queen Padmé Amidala and Keira Knightley’s Sabé featured at early points in their respective A-list careers.

Yet George Lucas’ smartest The Phantom Menace casting decision was picking Ray Park to play the foreboding Zabrak Darth Maul. A relatively unknown stunt double at the time, Park’s Darth Maul portrayal was hailed as one of the best aspects of The Phantom Menace despite the hype surrounding Benicio Del Toro’s potential Maul portrayal. As a result, here’s why Star Wars was smart to cast Ray Park as Darth Maul, as well as the story behind Benicio Del Toro’s association with the role.

Benicio Del Toro Was Originally Supposed To Play Darth Maul

When Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace‘s casting took place in 1998, Benicio Del Toro was a hot commodity after star turns in movies such as The Usual Suspects and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Del Toro’s intensity in these roles had already earmarked him as a potential candidate to play Darth Maul, with George Lucas reportedly contacting Del Toro regarding the open role in 1998. Del Toro initially jumped at the chance to be a part of the Star Wars franchise and signed onto the project shortly after – with Del Toro’s billing within The Phantom Menace perhaps only overshadowed by Neeson, Frank Oz, and Samuel L. Jackon’s presence at the time.

Yet just a few months after accepting the role, Del Toro was told by George Lucas that his part had been cut considerably, with Maul given approximately five lines in the new version of The Phantom Menace script in line with the Zabrak’s brooding, menacing intensity. If reports around the time are to be believed, Del Toro subsequently walked from the project, citing a lack of dialogue and screentime as reasons why he felt he couldn’t do much with the final version of Maul. Interestingly, though, Del Toro would eventually find his way into the Star Wars franchise nonetheless as the duplicitous DJ in Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Del Toro May Have Hurt Maul’s Early Popularity

Despite garnering a massive following in the mid to late 1990s, Benicio Del Toro being in the final The Phantom Menace version may have hurt Darth Maul’s early popularity. While Maul has since featured in both the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Solo: A Star Wars Story, his first appearance in The Phantom Menace represented something of a gamble by Lucas and company. Created exclusively for The Phantom Menace as Darth Sidious’ (Ian McDiarmid) Sith apprentice, Maul went through several conceptual changes before emerging as the devil-inspired Zabrack that is so iconic today.

This is evident in Lucas’ handling of Maul, with the Star Wars creator gradually whittling down Maul’s number of lines in The Phantom Menace to make him a more mysterious, foreboding entity. While these changes were a source of frustration, particularly for a disenchanted Del Toro in 1998, Maul’s final form would prove to be a masterstroke by Lucas and his design team – with Maul’s silent yet oddly honorable demeanor feeding into his instant popularity among the Star Wars community. Maul was especially popular in 1999 among children and teenagers, who were instantly taken by a silent, “cool” character with a never-before-seen double-bladed lightsaber. Yet this popularity would have been shattered had Maul retained his original speaking role, with Del Toro likely to have become the face of Maul rather than allowing his subtle traits to come to the fore. In this way, despite being a massive name and a hugely talented actor, Del Toro playing Maul in the final reckoning may actually have hurt the character’s gargantuan popularity in 1999.

Ray Park Was The Right Actor To Play Darth Maul

As a result, Ray Park was undoubtedly the right actor to play Darth Maul – with his legacy enduring in contemporary culture. An almost entirely unknown stunt performer at the time, Ray Park’s natural physicality, stature, and signature snarl would come to define Maul in his entirety. While Lucas initially killed Maul in an iconic duel between the Sith apprentice, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan, the Star Wars creator clearly realized the value of Park’s Maul after the fact and allowed Star Wars: The Clone Wars to retcon Maul’s death – bringing him back from the brink in his severed form. It is unlikely Lucas would have made this decision had Park not nailed Maul’s mannerisms and seething characterization that laid the foundation for the character in each of his Star Wars appearances since – highlighting the fantastic job Park did in 1998/1999 despite stepping into the role at the last minute.

Yet while huge praise must go to Park for his nuanced take on Darth Maul’s almost entirely silent character, getting a smaller name to play Maul was always the right call for The Phantom Menace. As infamously reported in 1998, Lucas turned down Michael Jackson’s bid to play the hated Jar Jar Binks as he felt having massive celebrity names attached to the project would detract from The Phantom Menace‘s immersive spectacle. In this way, Ray Park was not only the right actor to become Darth Maul because he was born to play the Sith, but also because he arrived with minimal baggage that would not transfer over into the final version of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.