Did Maul Ever Realize He Almost Killed Anakin?

You know that quick scene in The Phantom Menace when Darth Maul charges at Qui-Gon and young Anakin right outside their ship on Tatooine? It’s fast and chaotic – Maul shows up, there’s a short duel, and Anakin barely escapes by getting yanked into the ship. It lasts maybe a few seconds. But years later, once Maul starts chasing Anakin during The Clone Wars, I couldn’t help but wonder – did he ever figure out that he came inches away from killing the Chosen One?

There’s this quick moment in The Phantom Menace — Maul charges at Qui-Gon and Anakin outside their ship on Tatooine. It’s a fast scene, with a short duel, some chaos, and then Anakin gets pulled up the ramp just in time. Blink and you might miss it. But after rewatching The Clone Wars, I kept coming back to that one moment. Maul spends so much time tracking Anakin later — did he ever figure out that he nearly ran him over years before?

Let’s walk through what we know — and what’s never said out loud.

He Didn’t Notice Anakin at the Time

When Maul first shows up on Tatooine, he’s not interested in random locals. He’s tracking Queen Amidala and the Jedi escorting her. That’s his mission. At this point, Sidious hasn’t even told him anything about Anakin — because Sidious doesn’t know yet. So Maul’s focus is on finding and taking out the Jedi.

Now, The Phantom Menace novel by Terry Brooks gives us a bit more detail. There’s a moment where Maul lands outside Mos Espa and sends out his probe droids:

“He punched in the calculations required to identify the enemy he was looking for. Jedi Knights would manifest a particularly strong presence in the Force.”

He’s setting the droids to search for Jedi, not kids. Then it says:

“Darth Maul watched until they were out of view, the darkness closing quickly now. He smiled faintly. Soon.”

This all happens before he even knows Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan are on the planet. He hasn’t seen them — or Anakin — yet. His attention is fully locked on Force-trained targets.

And even later, during that brief duel with Qui-Gon in the desert, Anakin is right there. But Maul doesn’t glance at him. No recognition, no pause, nothing. It’s like the kid doesn’t exist to him.

Which is kind of strange, considering Anakin’s incredible Force potential. His midichlorian count is the highest ever recorded — higher than Yoda’s. You’d think someone like Maul, trained to sense Force presence, might pick up on that.

Why He Might Have Missed It Anyway

Technically, Anakin did have a massive Force presence — but at that time, it was completely raw. No Jedi training, no control, no focus. And from what we’ve seen across Star Wars, sensing untrained Force sensitivity — especially in a child — doesn’t always trigger alerts for Sith or Jedi unless they’re specifically paying attention.

Even the Jedi Council didn’t immediately grasp how powerful Anakin was until Qui-Gon pointed it out and tested him. Maul’s probe droids were tuned to detect strong, active Force signatures — like trained Jedi. A kid with raw potential just wouldn’t register the same way.

So Maul either didn’t sense him at all, or sensed something and ignored it because it wasn’t the target he was looking for.

Later on, He Learns Exactly Who Anakin Is

Now jump ahead to The Clone Wars Season 7, and things are very different. By this point, Maul knows exactly who Anakin Skywalker is. He’s not just aware of him — he understands that Anakin is the one Sidious is grooming to take over as his new apprentice. That comes straight from Maul’s own words to Ahsoka in the episode “The Phantom Apprentice.”

At this point, Maul isn’t just aware of Anakin — he’s actively trying to stop him. He orchestrates the siege of Mandalore with the hope of drawing Anakin in. When that fails, he even tries to convince Ahsoka to help him kill Anakin, believing that Skywalker’s fall will lead to the collapse of everything.

This clearly shows that by the time of the Clone Wars, Maul knows Anakin deeply — his role, his power, and the danger he represents.

But He Never Talks About That First Encounter

What’s strange is that despite all of that, Maul never once mentions that he almost killed Anakin back in the desert. Not in the shows, not in any canon book, not even in a throwaway line.

There’s nothing to suggest he ever looked back on that moment and realized how close he came to changing everything.

Now, Maul isn’t someone who talks a lot about missed chances or regrets. But still — if you had a moment where you nearly ran down the future Darth Vader, you’d expect at least some reaction, right?

It’s possible that later, when he learned more about Anakin’s past, he quietly put it together. The timeline lines up. He’d know that Anakin came from Tatooine and was found by Qui-Gon. He’d also know that he was there at the same time. And Maul has shown before that he remembers details — he kept Obi-Wan’s name in his head for over ten years. So connecting the dots wouldn’t be a stretch.

But if he ever did, he kept it to himself.