It’s kind of insane that Darth Maul, a character who was both introduced and unceremoniously killed off all the way back in 1999, is now getting his own TV show in 2026. Of course, the actual trajectory of the character has been far more complicated than that, if you’ve been paying attention. While film audiences may only know Darth Maul as the scene-stealing antagonist of George Lucas’ Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, the character was actually resurrected just a few short years later on Dave Filoni’s animated series The Clone Wars, with actor Sam Witwer providing the previously predominantly mute character with what would become his trademark poetic malevolence.
Since then, the character has popped up in everything from Filoni’s other animated series, Star Wars Rebels (where he died, for the record), to a cameo appearance at the tail-end of Ron Howard’s 2018 spin-off, Solo: A Star Wars Story. So while the character of Maul has been far from absent throughout the past several decades of Star Wars media, the character has never quite gotten to take center-stage. That is, of course, until now, with the release of Matt Michnovetz’ Maul - Shadow Lord.
Picking up a few years post-The Clone Wars, this series tells the tale of how Maul survived in the intervening years between the rise of the Empire and the events of the original trilogy; specifically pertaining to his mixed up role with the syndicates (read: mafia-esque gangsters and thugs) in the underbelly of the Star Wars galaxy. On top of that, the series has taken on an extra weight of meta-heft thanks to the fact that it is also repurposing ideas that were originally present in George Lucas’ sequel trilogy pitches which were included in Lucasfilm’s sale to Disney back in 2013, but wound up being largely unused. All of this to say, Maul - Shadow Lord is scratching a litany of very specific itches within the franchise (elevating a fan-favorite villain to a leading role, filling narrative gaps, and exploring previously untouched ideas), but can it do all of that while also being a good show in its own right?
This was something I was worried about heading in, but having now seen the two-part debut of the series, with episodes “The Dark Revenge” and “Sinister Schemes,” those fears can be safely put to rest. While it is a highly-specific and ultimately quite niche Star Wars project, Maul - Shadow Lord is already off to an incendiary and incredibly capable start.
For the uninitiated, it bears repeating: Lucasfilm animation has been absolutely knocking it out of the park for the past several years now. Between the long-awaited final season of The Clone Wars and the excellent and consistently undervalued The Bad Batch, Lucasfilm Animation grew in both size and ambition when it came to the medium of animation itself. The place where this was most readily apparent was in the third and final season of Jennifer Corbett’s Bad Batch, which saw the team incorporating everything from classical Jack Cardiff-inspired lighting techniques to matte paintings as backdrops to blend with the digital animation. The resulting visuals were something that could only be described as the most artistically-minded work of Lucasfilm Animation’s entire output. For a better illustration of just how far this craft had come, all one would need to do is watch an episode from the early season of The Clone Wars and compare it to the final season of Bad Batch; the chasm of difference in terms of not only fidelity and animation quality, but also of sheer cinematic awareness and stylization, is monumental.
All of this to say, in so many ways, Maul - Shadow Lord plays as a culmination of all of the phenomenal work put in thus far, capitalizing on this evolution of craft in genuinely striking ways.
So much of the team that helped turn The Bad Batch into such an under-sung hero of the medium is present here in palpable ways, from showrunner Matt Michnovetz, to producers Brad Rau and Carrie Beck, and beyond, many are present and accounted for on Maul. As a direct result of this, the series’ debut episodes see this creative team bringing all of the innovations in craft that became defining hallmarks of The Bad Batch, and pushing them to even further extremes here in some gob-smacking ways. From the painterly qualities and textures to the hyper-frenetic kinetic movement of the characters to cinematographer Joel Aron’s continuously bold work, Maul’s every visual choice feels bold and audacious, driven by a desire to deliver a formal craft as overtly ambitious in its goals as the character of Maul is in his own.
The action here is also terrific and plentiful. Between these two episodes, there are at least a half-dozen action setpieces, and each one of them feels invigorating and impactful. A notable change to the visual vernacular of the animation from previous Star Wars projects is just how tight and claustrophobic the action is. This is true not only in terms of setting, with much of the episodes’ action taking place in literally cluttered or cut-off locales, but also in terms of the staging and framing itself. The camera is literally closer to the action here, the direction working to create a far more frenzied, nitty-gritty sensory assault, and succeeding in spades.
It is also worth mentioning just how stellar the pace of these episodes is, moving at a clip while still allowing for room and resonance in which the big beats can truly land. Which is to say, these first two episodes are well-structured on a narrative level, demonstrate a deftness for handling theme and emotion (aided tremendously by the Kiners’ superb musical score), and incredibly well edited. The differences both in terms of formal quality and in terms of sheer momentum between Maul - Shadow Lord and the majority of the live-action Star Wars series’ of the past several years is literal night-and-day. Where shows like The Book of Boba Fett or the latter seasons of The Mandalorian often feature blunt lighting, baffling staging, and altogether unpleasant visual attributes, Maul - Shadow Lord feels meticulously sculpted in every way. Similarly, where those lesser live-action works feel like they are desperately attempting to spread a thin story across several episodes, Maul is already moving with such speed and confidence that it is apparent from the start that this is all killer, no filler.
The vocal performances here are also fantastic. Sam Witwer continues to push his Maul abilities to new insane heights, which is always a delight, but the real scene-stealer of these first two episodes is Wagner Moura as Detective Brander Lawson, a new character for this series. Lawson is a world-weary detective who feels like he stepped straight out of a classic noir film, complete with his own lonely and longing horn-aided theme music. Moura brings an authenticity, grit, and unexpected pathos to this role, and the team’s scripting does a stellar job of grounding the character, even bringing shades of Tony Gilroy’s Andor to jaded detective in striking form.
Altogether, these first two episodes are an excellent start for Maul - Shadow Lord, demonstrating how it is both a unique new project for the Lucasfilm Animation team and a culminating celebration of all the sublime and innovative work they have done over the past several years. The episodes start strong and end even stronger, in a fashion that is destined to have fans eager for more. I know I am.