Star Wars made its return to animation in 2025 with Maul-Shadow Lord, a new series that spins off from the beloved Clone Wars series. This ten-part series shifts the attention to the Dark Side, putting the focus on the former Sith Lord, Maul, one year after the events of The Clone Wars. Barring the Tales of series, this marks the first real time that a …
Star Wars made its return to animation in 2025 with Maul-Shadow Lord, a new series that spins off from the beloved Clone Wars series. This ten-part series shifts the attention to the Dark Side, putting the focus on the former Sith Lord, Maul, one year after the events of The Clone Wars. Barring the Tales of series, this marks the first real time that a villain has been the protagonist of a series, which opens up a whole new set of complexity and themes. But does the show actually work by having a villain featured so prominently? Let’s find out.
Maul-Shadow Lord chronicles the rise of Maul as the Empire expands its grip on the galaxy. He’s still out for revenge against Darth Sidious, and using the remnants of the Shadow Collective, seeks to establish a new crime syndicate in order to thwart his former master’s plans. But in order to truly succeed, he’ll need an apprentice. Thankfully for him, a young Jedi Padawan and her master are hiding on the same planet that he is, creating ample opportunities to manipulate the situation for his benefit. At the same time, a police detective on the planet Janix is on Maul’s trail, trying to uncover the conspiracy that’s happening on his planet.
So does this show work? Overall, most certainly! I would say one of the biggest things going against it is that Maul’s ultimate quest to find an apprentice does feel a bit too familiar to his arc in Star Wars Rebels, which saw him trying to lure Ezra to the Dark Side on numerous occasions. Thankfully, the show gives ample screen time to Devon, the Jedi Padawan, who serves as one of the three protagonists on the show. Living in hiding with her master, Eeko-Dio Daki, she finds her faith in her training and her master begins to be tested while hiding on Janix. Why run and hide when they could take the fight to the Empire instead? Is Maul really her enemy when the Empire is also out for him? There’s some logic in Maul’s plans and ambitions, at least from a certain point of view that has put some cracks in her beliefs and foundations.
Meanwhile, Detective Lawson is trying to uncover the criminal activity that’s been happening in the city, all while trying to get the Empire involved. Protocol dictates that the arrival of someone like Maul, equipped with a “laser sword”, would mean the request of the Empire, which Lawson’s trusty droid companion, Two-Boots, constantly reminds Lawson of. But he is not a big fan of the Empire and would rather leave them out of the conversation, despite it being against protocol. Of course, Two-Boots is programmed to follow protocol, and before long, the Empire inevitably gets called, and their presence is more than just a simple matter of assisting. A full-blown occupation occurs, including the arrival of two Inquisitors to help track down Maul and the two Jedi fugitives.
Lucasfilm continues to flex their amazing animation with Maul-Shadow Lord. Being set in a dystopian, cyberpunk-looking city, the show showcases a dazzling lighting system that allows lots of neon signs to peek through the darkness. But like a lot of these Clone Wars-style shows, many of the backgrounds are actually matte paintings, and Maul really leans into this aesthetic, showcasing some dazzling hand-drawn backgrounds. Maul himself is also wonderfully realized, with the animators really leaning into horror aesthetics throughout the series, giving Maul a Michael Myers or Jason vibe as he stalks in the shadows.
The show also features some impressive voice acting. Sam Witwer returns as Maul, offering a venomous and deadly performance that’s punctuated by moments of sheer rage. They even incorporated his screams into Maul’s lightsaber hum. Civil War and Narcos’ Wagner Moura lends his voice to Lawson, while The IT Crowd’s Richard Ayoade voices Two-Boots, while Gideon Aldon and Dennis Haysbert voice Devon and Daki, respectively. I did find Chris Diamantopoulos as Vario, a small-time (so sorry) crime boss, a bit out of place; his performance felt more like a Saturday morning cartoon than a gritty crime drama.
The show does a good job at making the two Inquisitors actually scary and interesting for once. Usually, they just show up and start swinging their sabers around (which does happen here), but it was great to actually see some inquisitiveness for once as they looked over crime scenes and tracked their quarry. It gave me detective vibes, by way of either a Blade Runner or, more likely, considering the parallels between the Empire and Nazi Germany, SS soldiers looking for Jews. Marrok, in particular, who felt like a proper menace, even when you bear in mind that both he and the Sixth Brother get one-shotted by Ahsoka at some point in time. So that does make their conflicts with both the Jedi and Maul feel a bit jarring at times, as they have extensive and impressive duels with the other Force users in the show, but Ahsoka appears to be a god-tier duelist now.
Where the show did stumble for me was actually the finale. Darth Vader showed up, and I couldn’t help but feel it was a big dose of fan service with little real payoff or tension. For most of the show, Marrok was the one hunting down Maul, backed up by the Sixth Brother, but to have Vader show up at the last second actually sapped a lot of the tension from the plot. “I wonder who will survive?” I thought sarcastically to myself, as red blades clashed. Since we know both of them survive, and the whole plot hinges on Maul bringing on Devon as an apprentice, the only real candidate for death was Daki, as that would drive Devon’s arc forward. Surprise, surprise, that’s what happened. Lawson also sacrificed himself to save his son, but I’m not convinced he met his end, as he vanished into the fog. So the end really felt like an example of style versus substance.
Overall, Maul-Shadow Lord was a solid time. I really liked the art design, story, and characters in this series and appreciated the more grim and darker tone the show took. The finale did feel wanting and predictable, but this was an engaging and entertaining romp through the underworld, and I would most certainly watch the second season of this show when it comes out.
