If you’re a Star Wars fan then the chances are you don’t remember the prequel trilogy with the fondest of memories. To you, they’re just a CGI’d, dance-fighting, ethos-spoiling, Jar-Jar Binks-featuring mess.
However, one redeeming feature of the prequel trilogy was the horned menace Darth Maul: the Sith Lord covered head-to-toe in red and black tattoos. He wasn’t a long-lived character by any means; cut in half by a braided Obi-Wan Kenobi and then brought back to life as a crazed, disavowed apprentice with spider-legs in The Clone Wars TV series. But we’d all like to forget that. Despite his short stay, he made a huge impression on fans: we wanted more.
One fan has taken it upon himself to provide this in an ambitious fan-film entitled Darth Maul: Apprentice.
The 17-minute short, directed by German film student Shaun Bu, acts as a prequel to the events of Episode I: The Phantom Menace, showing how the Dathomirian devil completed his training. Having said that, there’s not an awful lot of story to it (it focuses on Maul slicing through Jedi Knights) but the CGI is something to make George Lucas weep.
As with all fan-made material, Darth Maul: Apprentice is non-canon. Corporations like Disney always seem to be very hot on fan-made material getting exposed to the public so Star Wars fans should watch it while they can.
The discussion on whether Disney have so little faith in their own films that they feel they need to destroy every little fan-made film can wait another day.
#Peace.Love.DarthMaul
