Peter Serafinowicz appeared on a recent episode of the “Classic Clown” podcast and looked back at his brief stint voicing the villainous Darth Maul in 1999’s “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.” While Ray Park physically played the Sith villain on the set of the George Lucas-directed prequel, Serafinowicz contributed his voice to the part in both “Phantom Menace” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
“It was weird. This character Darth Maul… I don’t know what I thought,” Serafinowicz said. “The design of it… I wasn’t that into it. When I saw the film it was the biggest disappointment of my life at that point. It really was. I mean, have you seen it? It was so exciting that even being in it .. doing this thing, what I thought would be this iconic thing. Just unimaginable.. I guess it sort of is [iconic]. I suppose.”
“James Earl Jones has got the best voice of any human ever, right?” Serafinowicz continued. “Then, suddenly there I was with George Lucas, and he was like saying, ‘Well, Peter, you’re the new James Earl Jones,’ and I was like, ‘Fucking hell, am I? Then why are you paying me such shit money, George?”
Serafinowicz was replaced as the voice of Darth Maul by Sam Witwer during the animated “Star Wars” series “The Clone Wars.” Witwer returned to the role for the Disney+ series “Maul – Shadow Lord,” which streamed earlier this year.
