20 Things You Somehow Missed In Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

Proving that all good things do in fact have a funny ol' habit of coming in threes, it turns out that Darth Maul only ever lets loose an all-important blink on three occasions in The Phantom Menace.

Far from simply being a technique conjured up by Ray Park and George Lucas from the get-go to give the Dathomirian Zabrak a more unsettling vibe throughout, this barely blinking idea was born out of the physical Maul performer being in agony every time he was forced to blink when donning the character's signature red and yellow contact lenses.

So, instead of rethinking the concept of the eye-stabbing lenses, Park used this pain to fuel his character's constant refusal to break eye-contact, making for a much more mysterious and menacing portrayal of the mostly silent enforcer.