Star Wars: Original Darth Maul Design Terrified George Lucas

The Sith Lords of the Star Wars Universe all have a distinct look that makes them appear sinister and powerful at the same time. However, it seems like Darth Maul holds the distinction of being the one villain who actually terrified George Lucas while Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was in its early stages. Interestingly, the original design for Maul may have been way too scary for Lucas.

StarWars.com covered an expansive oral history on The Phantom Menace where the people behind the film discussed how it came to be. Iain McCaig, who served as the concept artist for the movie, revealed that Darth Maul was initially described in the script as "a vision from your worst nightmare" and so that was what he created.

"I drew my worst nightmare, which was that face that's peering in the window at you late at night, and it's barely alive. Like a cross between a ghost and a serial killer staring in at you, and it's raining, and the rain is distorting the face," McCaig said. "So I drew that, a stylized version of it, red ribbons instead of rain, and put it in a folder, and at the meeting passed it over to George. George opened it up and went, 'Oh, my God,' slammed it shut, handed it back, and said, 'Give me your second worst nightmare.'"

Here's McCaig's first Darth Maul design:

Luckily, the artist didn't have to reach too far to come up with a second design. McCaig finally nailed it when he thought of the next scariest thing for him.

Credit: Star Wars

"I tried to figure out what I'd done wrong in my thinking because you don't want less, ever. I started thinking, 'Star Wars is not real life. It's mythology.' So I looked for my first best mythological nightmare, and that's easy because that's clowns. I was scared to death of Bozo the Clown as a kid. So I made my big scary clown, and I'd run out of faces to draw, so I used mine. I drew myself into a clown. The patterns became very stylized patterns of the muscles underneath the skin that give expression to the face," he said.

Credit: Star Wars

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Yep, this is definitely closer to the final design that ended up in the film. McCaig also admitted that he had originally drawn feathers on Darth Maul but it was mistaken for horns.

What do you think of Darth Maul's original design? Sound off in the comments below.