Maul – Shadow Lord episode 8 doesn't stick exactly to canon, but star Sam Witwer says it was done with intention: "The audience can take from that what they will"

Maul – Shadow Lord star Sam Witwer says those flashbacks in episode 8 were confusing to fans on purpose, but for a much deeper reason than you might think.

"Brad, very smartly, along with Dave (Filoni)’s help, and Matt (Michnovetz), he made sure that everything we saw in those 'flashbacks,'" Witwer explained on the My Mom's Basement Podcast. "Are they flashbacks? Seems like a vision? Is a vision a flashback? How does that work? Because nothing that we see in those visions matches up with The Clone Wars or The Phantom Menace. They're different. People saying things in a different order, you know, and the audience can take from that what they will. They can try to interpret why. We know why we did it that way. Brad knows why he did it that way."

In Maul - Shadow Lord episode 8, Maul is beside himself after losing a battle with Marrok and the Eleventh Brother. As he walks alone and reflects, he is suddenly plagued with a series of visions that are presented to the viewer as flashbacks. And here's where things get a little confusing: these flashbacks involve various events throughout Maul's life that made him what he is today... but they're different to the way they play out in canon.

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Is the show retconning or changing Star Wars canon? Not quite. This is sort of how trauma works sometimes: the memories can change over time, therefore turning the survivor into an unreliable narrator. What Maul sees, and what the viewer sees, isn't necessarily what actually happened. As Witwer says, it's all in Maul's head.

Added Witwer: "But, going along with that, Brad said, ‘It needs to be your voice with all the characters. Young Savage, Sidious, Young Maul, because this is Maul's, while it's a vision, it's also his remembrance, so this is all in his head."

All 10 episodes of Maul – Shadow Lord are streaming now on Disney Plus. For more, check out our Maul – Shadow Lord review, or our guide on how to watch The Clone Wars in order.