Star Wars casts Ray Park as Darth Maul due to horrible online game film

Once you’re in “Star Wars,” you do not at all times want that many strains or that a lot display screen time to turn into a fan favourite. Simply ask Ray Park, who shortly rose to fame inside the fandom after enjoying Darth Maul in 1999’s “The Phantom Menace.” Park would not converse a single phrase because the character, with Maul’s few strains having been dubbed by Peter Serafinowicz. When the character was resurrected for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels,” he was voiced as a substitute by veteran actor Sam Witwer. However Park’s model of Maul remained close to and pricey to followers’ hearts due to his unforgettable bodily presence and martial arts skills. And but, it in all probability by no means would have been picked up and not using a really horrible movie.

In 1995, “Mortal Kombat” gave us one of many the best video game movies we had seen it for many years. It is goofy and campy, certain, nevertheless it’s additionally enjoyable, and it captures loads of the spirit of the video games. This made the scenario much more tragic when the sequel, 1997’s “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation,” turned out to be a burning rubbish dump of unhealthy choices and horrible particular results. Thankfully, it additionally gave Park his massive likelihood to work as a stuntman, which immediately led to his later audition for “Star Wars.”

“I did all the things on this movie,” Park mentioned Star Wars Insider in 2003 about his work “Annihilation”. “I didn’t know anybody within the film business, however after Mortal Kombat 2, all the things began to occur.”

If “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” was solely good for getting Ray Park’s consideration, it was price it. With out him beneath Maul’s red-and-black alien pores and skin, it is exhausting to think about the climactic lightsaber duel of “The Phantom Menace” changing into the legendary sequence it’s at present. That mentioned, Park wasn’t even a member of a union whereas engaged on “Mortal Kombat 2,” and the gig wasn’t fairly what you’d count on for a soon-to-be-famous stuntman .

“I assembled the bins, was the crash pad supervisor, and suggested the actors on their combat scenes,” Park informed Star Wars Insider, describing the wide selection of duties he was assigned. in the course of the manufacturing of “Annihilation”. “This movie was my apprenticeship.” Rick McCallum, George Lucas’ producer for all the prequel trilogy, noticed potential in Park when he started listening to concerning the younger stunt star. “This particular person needed to elevate the performances of Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor,” McCallum informed Star Wars Insider in 2003. “Ray’s mixture of bodily agility and menace, that was all the things.”

The outcomes converse for themselves. Whereas George Lucas received a lot of criticism for “The Phantom Menace”. Darth Maul established himself because the factor that the majority moviegoers universally beloved. Its longevity within the canon is a testomony to Park’s efficiency, particularly since Maul was alleged to be useless by the top of the movie.

Whereas Sam Witwer reprized the function of Darth Maul within the animated world of “Star Wars,” Ray Park was destined to play the function once more, and he lastly received his likelihood (albeit briefly) in “Solo: A Star Wars Story ” from 2018. The revelation on the finish of the movie that Maul was pulling most of the underworld’s strings was met with combined reactions on the time, primarily as a result of Darth Maul’s complicated timeline. Followers who hadn’t watched “The Clone Wars” could not even have recognized that he survived his combat with “Phantom Menace,” and sadly, Park’s martial arts prowess was wasted within the movie , since Maul solely seems in a hologram, voiced by Witwer.

In 2020, nonetheless, greater than twenty years after “The Phantom Menace,” followers lastly received a brand new lightsaber combat with Park as Maul. When it got here time to create the climactic Siege of Mandalore arc for Season 7 of “The Clone Wars,” showrunner Dave Filoni needed a sprawling duel between Maul and Ahsoka Tano, so the staff introduced in Park and to fellow stuntwoman Lauren Mary Kim for refueling. movement seize for battle. The result’s arguably the best lightsaber duel of any animated “Star Wars” present, and you may actually see Park’s distinctive type within the completed product.

So the subsequent time you watch one in every of Park’s glorious performances in Maul, present some gratitude to “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.” Do not have a look at him.