Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord delivers first-rate animation and a decent storyline with Maul taking the spotlight, and it offers a good addition to the franchise.
What Is It?
This Star Wars animated entry follows the former Sith Lord Maul in the years after The Clone Wars and the rise of the Galactic Empire. Stripped of much of his former power, Maul seeks to rebuild his criminal syndicate from the shadows while pursuing revenge against those who betrayed him. Along the way, he encounters a disillusioned young Jedi Padawan who may become the apprentice he has long sought, drawing both the Empire and the Inquisitors into a dangerous conflict.
Airing: Disney+ (All Ten Season One Episodes Currently Available)
Starring: Sam Witwer, Chris Diamantopoulos, Dennis Haysbert, Gideon Adlon, Wagner Moura
Created By: Dave Filoni
Johnny Jay’s Thoughts:
Full confession: I am a big fan of the original Star Wars movies (Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi), but once the franchise got past that point, I am very hit-and-miss with its output. I did not much care for the prequel trilogy nor the sequel trilogy, and while I have caught parts of the animated shows, none have really stuck with me too much except Rebels. I did love Rogue One and its prequel series Andor, and The Mandalorian and Ahsoka have both been decent. And I was also one of the few who enjoyed The Book of Boba Fett. So, when the Maul animated series was announced—which is more heavily linked to the prequel era—I was uncertain if I would make much effort to watch it, but it got some really good buzz, so I decided to give it a look.
As many fans of the franchise know, Maul was introduced in The Phantom Menace and was played up as the next Star Wars Big Bad. But he was dispatched in that film pretty quickly, killed off by a young Obi-Wan Kenobi (spoiler alert?). He proved so popular, though, that they eventually resurrected him in The Clone Wars animated series (spoiler alert?), and he made an appearance in Rebels (I won’t spoil how that goes) as well as the Solo movie. Now, he has his own series, and the villain-turned-anti-hero is given his chance to shine.
I won’t go too much into the history of Maul, but he started out as a Sith Lord serving under Darth Sidious, and after surviving getting cut in half by Obi-Wan (It’s just a flesh wound!), he renounced the Sith and struck out on his own as basically the Star Wars version of a mob boss. The current series takes place after the events of The Clone Wars and before the events of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Maul is on the planet Janix in the early years of the Empire, and he is looking to rebuild his criminal syndicate. One of the local police detectives is determined to stop him without involving the Empire, and a Jedi on the run with his Padawan becomes involved in the conflict as well.
Compared to the other Star Wars animated entries, this is the one I have enjoyed the most next to Rebels. I was a little confused at first because I had not watched all of The Clone Wars, so I didn’t know the full history of how Maul got to where he was at the start of the series. But a little bit of reading caught me up, and I am pretty much following the events well enough at this point.
The characters are all solid even if each of them brings plenty of similarities to other characters in the franchise or the genre in general. Maul is really the most interesting one in the show (thus the reason his name is in the rather clunky title), and they are doing a good job of developing his sinister nature while also showing other aspects of his personality. He claims to just want to run his crime syndicate in peace and even offers protection to Janix. He also has no love for the Empire, so he has that enemy-of-my-enemy thing going for him.
The episodes are fairly well paced and move along briskly enough, and the show is developing an interesting story arc. The dialogue can be copy-and-paste at times, as can some of the plotlines, but the show still strikes out on its own enough that it does not feel like a complete retread. The animation is definitely a highlight, delivering some of the best CGI renderings among any of the Star Wars animated entries. They put some decent money into the production, and it shows.
I am through the fifth episode and plan on watching to the end of the current season. I don’t know that this quite lives up to the hype it has been getting, but it is a decent entry for the franchise so far with plenty of room to develop, and it is worth a look.
What’s Next?
This show was renewed for a second season in advance, and work on that has already begun. Maul voice actor Sam Witwer has said that the wait for the second year will not be “too, too long” since they got a jump on production, but with the high-quality animation they are using, I am guessing it will not be a quick turnaround either. But consider a return around mid to late 2027 to be a good bet.
Are you watching Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord and do you think it is one of the better entries in the franchise? Chime in with your thoughts in the comments section below.
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