Star Wars: 10 Things Everyone Always Gets Wrong About Darth Maul
7. He Was Sidious’ First Choice
Time now for a section we're calling "Didn't Maul have an awful childhood?"
He was born on the planet Dathomir, which is ruled over by a group of Force-sensitive witches called the Nightsisters. This all-female clan used the force to rule over their male counterparts, the Nightbrothers, and become so powerful that the evil Darth Sidious took notice of them.
Sidious travelled to Dathomir to have a nice cup of tea with the Nightsisters' leader, Mother Talzin. An extremely powerful being, Talzin was offered the opportunity to become Sidious' apprentice, but that all changed when the Sith Lord discovered Talzin's gifted son.
You can see where this is going.
Yes, Talzin was Maul's mother, and Sidious sensed great potential in him. He kidnapped the young boy, breaking his promise, and setting in motion the Zabrak's rise to power.
So Maul was not hand-picked by Sidious - his involvement with the Sith came about through sheer good luck. Or bad luck, from a certain point of view.