George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, once contemplated a significant villain twist for the prequel trilogy featuring Darth Maul and General Grievous. Maul and Grievous were both presented as distinct antagonists in the Lucas prequel trilogy. Maul (Ray Park) entered the Star Wars canon in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace as Chancellor Palpatine’s undercover Sith lord pupil (Ian McDiarmid). 

Count Dooku and General Grievous appeared in subsequent prequels after Maul defeated Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and his disciple Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) in a duel that concluded with the character’s assumed demise.

Henry Gilroy, the creator of the animated programs Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, has admitted that George Lucas thought about introducing a major villain twist in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. 

The concept designers for the Star Wars prequel trilogy, according to Gilroy, recommended that General Grievous should be the remnants of Darth Maul from his conflict with the Jedi hidden under the plates of armor. Gilroy continued, saying that even though he approves of the path the Star Wars creator took the characters. Below, you can read Gilroy’s whole response to the Grievous and Maul twist.

“George was considering that Grievous was Maul behind the armor plate. It made sense. He’s cut in half, and he’s in this robot body or whatever. I’m glad that Grievous is his own thing anyway, but I thought it was interesting that the concept guys almost talked George into that.”