25 years after his death by Phantom Menace, Darth Maul officially has more screen time than Darth Vader

Although he was only a few minutes away Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Darth Maul in fact, he had more screen time in total than Darth Vader, the most iconic villain in the entire franchise. Star Wars has a somewhat bad reputation for creating interesting and cool-looking villains only to kill them off within a few minutes. It first happened to Boba Fett in the original trilogy of Star Wars films, Darth Maul in the prequels and again with Captain Phasma in the sequels. Sometimes, as was the case with Boba Fett and Maul, these villains get a second chance years later.

Although Boba Fett and Maul resurfaced years after their apparent deaths in Star Wars timeline - in The Book of Boba Fett and Star Wars: The Clone Wars respectively - Maul's resurrection is more surprising in many ways. Boba Fett's Expanded Role in Modernity Star Wars It makes a lot of sense now that the Mandalorians are so popular, but Maul actually surpassed the franchise's most well-known villain in one of the first Star Wars show. Now, 25 years after his death, Maul has more screen time than Darth Vader.

Darth Maul returned in the Clone Wars and Rebels

The Clone Wars resurrected Maul and featured him much more often than Vader

The main reason Maul has more total screen time than Darth Vader is not because of Star Wars films, but because of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. The Clone Wars resurrected Maul after he was forked by Obi-Wan Kenobi at the end of The phantom menace. Maul then became a major antagonist in later seasons of The Clone Warsand he also appeared in a few episodes of Rebels years later. Thanks to the two long-running animated shows, Maul appears in about 142 minutes of Star Warswhile Darth Vader only has about 76 minutes of screen time.

In total, Maul has over an hour more screen time than Darth Vader, despite only appearing in one film and only being around for 25 years. The caveat to this fact is that Disney used Vader a lot more than George Lucas, and he has a lot more screen time in live action. Vader appeared about an hour into the original trilogy, Rogue One: A Star Wars Storyand Obi Wan Kenobiwhile Maul appeared in just over seven minutes of The phantom menace and Solo: A Star Wars Story. While Maul may have the crown for total screen time, Lord Vader still dominates the box office.

Darth Maul has become a truly iconic Star Wars character

Maul's legacy has only grown since the Phantom Menace

The sheer volume of screen time Maul has received since 1999 is a sign of how important he is to Star Wars: in other words, he became an icon of the franchise. Prequel fans have loved it since The phantom menacebut a whole new generation came to worship him through The Clone Wars and Rebels. He is probably the best example of a non-Sith dark side user and easily one of the most recognizable villains in the entire franchise. Even George Lucas' sequel trilogy plans included Maul being resurrected to tyrannize the galaxy again. No wonder it has become more popular over time.

Although Darth Vader doesn't have as much screen time, Maul's comparatively large amount of appearances highlights something about the original Star Wars villain. In just one fragment Star Wars's total runtime, Vader managed to become by far its most iconic villain. No matter how much attention Maul attracts, Vader will always be the face of the dark side, and he only needed a fraction of the time to achieve that. Although it's a good thing that Darth Maul given the chance to shine alone, he will never dethrone Darth Vader.