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There is a special kind of pressure that comes with adapting anything from the Star Wars films into another medium. When you are giving a new interpretation of something George Lucas created, it means trying to get it exactly right. So when Dave Filoni asked Sam Witwer to bring the terrifying Darth Maul to life in The Clone Wars series, both of them knew they needed to get it just right, so they pulled references from different places, including one of the greatest characters in Star Trek history.

Sam Witwer revealed the different villains throughout history that influenced his take on Darth Maul during a panel at Star Wars Celebration 2025. He explained that he and Filoni tweaked and edited his performance repeatedly to get it to be exactly what they were looking for. Starting with Gollum from Lord of the Rings, they swiftly found other inspiration to draw from.

“We were just so worried we would get it wrong, so we just kept talking and talking and we talked about Gollum,” he explained. “We talked about Colonel Kurtz from Apocalypse Now. And we talked about Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek. And we just started slowly putting together who we thought he was. Until finally we had to… do it and hopefully it worked out.”

It is fascinating how the character’s portrayal shifted and changed over the course of the development of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, particularly the influence of the iconic Star Trek villain on one of our favorite Star Wars villains. While there is a constant debate in sci-fi circles about which is better (Star Wars, obviously), it is clear that the two franchises have shared plenty with each other over the years.

Get to know, understand, and love the Star Wars franchise more with our Star Wars watch order, guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies & TV shows, and all the Star Wars movies and Star Wars TV shows ranked.