When you’re in “Star Wars,” you don’t always need that many lines or that much screen time to become a fan favorite. Just ask Ray Park, who quickly shot to fame within the fandom after playing Darth Maul in 1999’s “The Phantom Menace.” Park doesn’t utter a single word as the character, as Maul’s few lines were dubbed over by Peter Serafinowicz. When the character was resurrected for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels,” he was voiced by veteran voice actor Sam Witwer instead. But Park’s version of Maul has remained near and dear to fans’ hearts due to his unforgettable physical presence and martial arts ability. And yet, he likely would have never been cast if not for a truly terrible movie.
In 1995, “Mortal Kombat” gave us one of the best video game movies we’d seen in decades. It’s goofy and campy, sure, but it’s also fun, and it captures a good deal of the spirit of the games. That made it all the more tragic when the sequel, 1997’s “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation,” turned out to be an on-fire trash barrel of poor decisions and abysmal special effects. Thankfully, it also gave Park his big break working as a stunt person, which directly led to his later “Star Wars” audition.
“I did everything on that movie,” Park told Star Wars Insider in 2003 regarding his “Annihilation” work. “I didn’t know anybody in the movie industry, but after ‘Mortal Kombat 2,’ everything started to happen.”
Impressive work on Mortal Kombat: Annihilation led to a Darth Maul audition
If “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” was only good for getting Ray Park some attention, it was well worth it. Without him under Maul’s red and black alien skin, it’s hard to imagine the climactic lightsaber duel of “The Phantom Menace” becoming the legendary sequence it is today. That said, Park wasn’t even a union member when he worked on “Mortal Kombat 2,” and the gig wasn’t quite what you might expect for a soon-to-be-famous stuntman.
“I put boxes together, was the crash-pad man, and advised the actors on their fight scenes,” Park told Star Wars Insider, describing the wide range of tasks assigned to him during “Annihilation” production. “That movie was my apprenticeship.” Rick McCallum, George Lucas’ producer for the entire prequel trilogy, saw potential in Park when he began hearing about the young stunt star. “This person had to elevate Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor’s performances,” McCallum told Star Wars Insider in 2003. “Ray’s combination of physical agility and menace, that was it.”
The results speak for themselves. While George Lucas received a good deal of criticism for “The Phantom Menace,” Darth Maul stood out as the one thing most moviegoers universally loved. His longevity in the canon is a testament to Park’s performance, especially given that Maul was supposed to have died at the end of the movie.
Ray Park was so good as Maul that he’s continued to come back
While Sam Witwer took over the role of Darth Maul in the “Star Wars” animated world, Ray Park was destined to play the part again, and he finally got his chance (albeit briefly) in 2018’s “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” The reveal at the end of the film that Maul has been pulling many of the underworld strings got some mixed reactions at the time, mainly because of Darth Maul’s complicated timeline. Fans who hadn’t watched “The Clone Wars” may not have even known he survived his “Phantom Menace” fight, and unfortunately, Park’s martial arts prowess went to waste in the film, as Maul only appears in a hologram, dubbed over by Witwer.
In 2020, though, more than two decades after “The Phantom Menace,” fans finally got a new lightsaber fight with Park as Maul. When it came time to create the climactic Siege of Mandalore arc for “The Clone Wars” season 7, showrunner Dave Filoni wanted a sprawling duel between Maul and Ahsoka Tano, so the team brought in Park and fellow stunt performer Lauren Mary Kim to do full motion capture for the battle. The result is arguably the greatest lightsaber duel in any of the “Star Wars” animated shows, and you can really see Park’s distinctive style in the finished product.
So next time you watch one of Park’s excellent Maul performances, show a little gratitude to “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.” Just don’t watch it.
