Ron Howard “Lobbied Hard” To Include That Surprising ‘Solo’ Cameo

**Spoilers for “Solo: A Star Wars Story”**

There’s a lot to discuss about “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” Much like ‘The Last Jedi,’ ‘Solo’ is becoming a bit of a contentious film among the fanbase. Some love the feel of the film, along with its fun, energetic story. Others feel that it’s all just nostalgia porn and that ultimately, it’s a meaningless entry in the saga. But one of the specific points of contention is the big reveal of the film, in the form of a quick cameo by Maul (no Darth, this time), who is shown to be the leader of the Crimson Dawn.

The appearance by Maul, complete with robot legs, shocked everyone. But alas, Maul’s back. And according to ‘Solo’ director Ron Howard, he lobbied hard to include the villain.

“I will say that was scripted and there was a lot of uncertainty as to who that character would be. So it was sort of initially written in a rather generic way,” said Howard, in a new interview with Slash Film. “It just sort of said ‘Boss.’ And I thought when I came in, I assumed they knew who it was and they were just keeping it under wraps. And they didn’t. But Maul was listed as one of the candidates. And I lobbied hard for that. I thought that made a lot of sense to me. I found that character to be really effective.”

READ MORE: ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’: Let’s Talk About The Movie’s Surprise, WTF? Cameo & How It Connects To Deeper Canon

But Howard was also interested in appealing to “Star Wars” fans that might have grown up with the Prequels. “And so for that generation, I thought, well that was gonna be a pretty interesting idea. And doing a little more research and understanding sort of how the character had worked elsewhere, I thought it was good. And the Kasdan’s were on board with that,” explains the filmmaker. “And but then we actually shot it twice. Because we did it once. And then we realized we, it wasn’t quite Maul enough yet.”

When he was asked how the filmmaker made it better, Howard clarified, “Added the lightsaber. And intensified it. And definitely took a big jump.”

The inclusion of Maul created a whirlwind of debate among “Star Wars” fans. Does this mean Maul is going to appear again? Will he show up in the ‘Kenobi’ film? Was it just a meaningless call back in a film full of meaningless callbacks?

According to Howard, no one thought that far ahead. As Howard explains, “That wasn’t really the intention, but I’m glad it did that because maybe it’ll suggest more. Who knows?”

The person behind the script, and who is responsible for writing the initial “Boss” character, is none other than Jonathan Kasdan. And in that same interview, Kasdan discusses the reveal more, saying that Maul was always his intention for the character, and he even dropped clues:

“I was always sort of, I was trying to design it in such a way that everyone who read it would feel that they had thought to put him in there. And no one would realize that it was always what I wanted. And even Larry [Kasdan] was sort of ambivalent about it at the beginning and then came to fully embrace the Maul of it all. But yeah, no, there’s subtle clues and even in the name Crimson Dawn I think it’s sort of setup to be this guy’s organization and where he goes after the many adventures he has in ‘Clone Wars‘ and the like.”

With the poor box office showing of ‘Solo,’ it’ll be interesting to see how Lucasfilm handles future ‘Star Wars Story’ installments. Perhaps, this Maul cameo will just be a one-and-done sort of thing, after all.