Is Darth Maul actor Ray Park teasing some sort of appearance in The Mandalorian season 2? That seems to be the implication for fans reading into some recent social media activity from the Star Wars icon. Park played the villain in The Phantom Menace and later reprised the role in Solo. Now, some seem to think Maul may be making a comeback, but we might need to temper expectations on that one.

Taking to Instagram, Ray Park shared a black and white image of a symbol commonly associated with the Sith. While Darth Maul, throughout his journey witnessed on The Clone Wars and Rebels, abandoned the order of the Sith, that was where his roots of evil can be traced back to. The image was shared with the caption, "This is the way," which was the famous line introduced in The Mandalorian season 1. Fans found it easy to connect the dots, assuming this was teasing something related to season 2 of the show.

While that is certainly possible, we can almost certainly rule out an appearance from Maul. spoilers for those who haven't watched all of Star Wars Rebels, but that show gave us the long-awaited rematch between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Maul, with the Jedi master coming out on top. Maul met his demise and ended his journey. Rebels, in the overall Star Wars timeline, takes place before the events of A New Hope. The Mandalorian, on the other hand, takes place after the events of Return of the Jedi, meaning that Maul has been long dead. So, unless we are in for a major retcon, which also seems highly unlikely, Maul probably isn't going to show up.

That said, Ray Park could appear in some capacity outside of Maul. Warwick Davis, who originally played Wicket the Ewok in Return of the Jedi, has since gone on to play several characters in the franchise, for example. Perhaps Park will be playing a different role entirely in the show. One related to the Sith even, given the image shared in the Instagram post. That is purely speculative, but could offer another explanation for the post. Or, likely to the chagrin of many fans, people could just be reading into the post and making more of it than is necessary.

What we know for sure is that The Mandalorian season 2 will continue the adventures of Mando and Baby Yoda this October on Disney+. We also have word that Disney and Lucasfilm are already at work on season 3. As for those who want more from Darth Maul, The Clone Wars just wrapped up its final season and features the character squaring off with Ahsoka Tano, who may well be getting in on the action in The Mandalorian this season, as it happens, with Rosario Dawson said to be in talks for the role. Be sure to check out the post from Ray Park's Instagram for yourself.