Yes of course you are correct. The animated series Clone Wars and Rebels answers the Maul question. Both how he returns and his ultimate fate.
Just for some clarity, it is not Canonically true that Palpatine was responsible for "creating" Anakin. Yes, I am aware of what the final issue of Charles Soule's Canonical Darth Vader comic shows in that regard, but Lucasfilm Story Group member Matt Martin subsequently stated that the images in said comic were not meant to be interpreted literally.
As a slight clarification on my earlier comment, I have learned that it has not been Canonically confirmed to be true that Palpatine created Anakin, as Matt Martin went on to specify that he was not commenting on the ultimate veracity of whether or not Palpatine had a hand in Anakin's creation, merely clarifying that the specific images in Soule's comic were not intended to confirm that such is the case (which is a part of his comments that I had not previously been aware of). I do want to address the "Legends Canon" aspect of this topic, however, by bringing up the fact that Revenge of the Sith - which, under Lucasfilm's "tiered Canon" system, superseded Novel Canon - reveals that Palpatine was lying about knowing Plagueis' secrets in order to hasten Anakin's turn.
Palpatine creating Anakin is pure speculation on my part, yes. I’ve not read the last Vader issues yet.
From what I recall, Palpatine and Plagueis experimented with creating life (it is unclear if they ever had a success). Someplace across the galaxy from them, the Force reacted to this and created Anakin as a counter to them.
I believe you're referring to information from the novel Plagueis, which is now non-Canon and ultimately never had the impact and narrative weight that people assumed that it did even when it was considered Canon due to the fact that Revenge of the Sith - which confirmed that Palpatine did not in fact possess any of Plagueis' secret knowledge - superseded it.
Just because something was in a "Star Wars" book doesn't mean Abrams will follow it. I'm not even sure how much he will be following stuff in "The Last Jedi" If he wants Palpatine to be Anakin's dad then I suspect he will go with it. Jason
Remember also, Lucas met with Abrams to discuss the plan for Ep9. I imagine that Abrams listened to at least some of Lucas’ wishes here.
I wonder if Lucas always had a plan to bring back Palpatine. Does anyone recall some of the ideas Lucas said he would have done if he had made these movies? I think he talked about a couple of years ago. Makes you wonder if you might find possible spoilers within his ideas. Jason
IIRC he had some input on this movie. The Aftermath books also mentioned some Imperials trying to resurrect him based on his wishes. It had something to do a temple on Jakku, the plan was to blow up the planet then escape to the Unknown Regions and wait.
I don't see how ROTS confirmed any such thing. Besides, the Plagueis novel was canon before it wasn't, and it was obviously written to be consistent with ROTS. At the time, the public was told that it was developed with input from Lucasfilm higher-ups and that some of the plot points came from Lucas himself.
Maul died in Rebels. And they’re not going to ignore Solo. It doesn’t matter if it did poorly. That doesn’t even make sense. Hell Lando’s outfit in this movie appears to be inspired by his outfit in Solo.
Agreed. There is nothing in Solo that deserves to be ignored and Maul's story is sufficiently wrapped up.
Probably the quickest lightsaber duel in the series. I like the lone horn playing the Binary Sunset Theme as Kenobi switches stances to Qui-Gon's stance.
I find it interesting that Obi-Wan came to believe that Luke was the actual Chosen One, probably how he managed to hold onto hope for so long in the desert.