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 rose to fame within the fandom after playing Darth Maul in 1999’s “The Phantom Menace.” Park doesn’t speak a single word as the character, with Maul’s few lines having been dubbed by Peter Serafinowicz. When the character was resurrected for “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels,” he was voiced instead by veteran actor Sam Witwer. But Park’s version of Maul remained near and dear to fans’ hearts because of his unforgettable physical presence and martial arts abilities. And yet, it probably never would have been picked up without a truly terrible film.

In 1995, “Mortal Kombat” gave us one of the the best video game movies we had seen it for decades. It’s goofy and campy, sure, but it’s also fun, and it captures a lot of the spirit of the games. This made the situation even more tragic when the sequel, 1997’s “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation,” turned out to be a burning garbage dump of bad decisions and terrible special effects. Fortunately, it also gave Park his big chance to work as a stuntman, which directly led to his later audition for “Star Wars.”

“I did everything on this film,” Park said Star Wars Insider in 2003 about his work “Annihilation”. “I didn’t know anyone in the movie industry, but after Mortal Kombat 2, everything started to happen.”

If “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation” was only good for getting Ray Park’s attention, it was 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 member of a union while working on “Mortal Kombat 2,” and the gig wasn’t quite what you’d expect for a soon-to-be-famous stuntman .

“I assembled the boxes, was the crash pad manager, and advised the actors on their fight scenes,” Park told Star Wars Insider, describing the wide range of tasks he was assigned. during the production of “Annihilation”. “This film 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 the performances of Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor,” McCallum told Star Wars Insider in 2003. “Ray’s combination of physical agility and menace, that was everything.”

The results speak for themselves. While George Lucas received a lot of criticism for “The Phantom Menace”. Darth Maul established himself as the thing that most moviegoers universally loved. Its longevity in the canon is a testament to Park’s performance, especially since Maul was supposed to be dead by the end of the film.

While Sam Witwer reprized the role of Darth Maul in the animated world of “Star Wars,” Ray Park was destined to play the role again, and he finally got his chance (albeit briefly) in “Solo: A Star Wars Story ” from 2018. The revelation at the end of the film that Maul was pulling many of the underworld’s strings was met with mixed reactions at the time, mainly due to Darth Maul’s complicated timeline. Fans who hadn’t watched “The Clone Wars” may not even have known that he survived his fight with “Phantom Menace,” and unfortunately, Park’s martial arts prowess was wasted in the film , since Maul only appears in a hologram, voiced by Witwer.

In 2020, however, 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 Season 7 of “The Clone Wars,” showrunner Dave Filoni wanted a sprawling duel between Maul and Ahsoka Tano, so the team brought in Park and to fellow stuntwoman Lauren Mary Kim for refueling. motion capture for battle. The result is arguably the greatest lightsaber duel of any animated “Star Wars” show, and you can really see Park’s distinctive style in the finished product.

So the next time you watch one of Park’s excellent performances in Maul, show some gratitude to “Mortal Kombat: Annihilation.” Don’t look at him.