Maul has returned in Maul: Shadow Lord and he is ready to rebuild his power and possibly the Shadow Collective! The first ep is titled, “The Dark Revenge.” Maul has been a prequel presence since he appeared in Phantom Menace (1999), he was a threat in the Clone Wars series, but turned against the Emperor. Maul took over the Shadow Collective, an organization of bounty hunters, smugglers, and assassins.
Duchess Satine Kryze, who had ruled Mandalore, was overthrown by the Death Watch commandos. Maul killed her with the Darksaber in Clone Wars, “The Lawless’ (2013); LC-5/16. He was killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi in “Twin Suns” (2017), the Star Wars Rebels ep; FC-SWR3/20. Maul: Shadow Lord is created by Dave Filoni. The pilot is directed by Steward Lee, Saul Ruiz & Nathaniel Villanueva. It is wrtten by Matt Michnovetz, head writer and developer of the show.
The first season is made up of ten episodes streaming on Disney+ now. Sinister music plays, composed by Kevin Kiner, as we see the city-planet of Janix. This is a new Mid-Rim planet. Ships flash through the skyscraper canons with blue-tinged light in the darkness. Three ships in particular. A dark building has two groups rapelling down its face. We hear the voice of Rook Kast (Vanessa Marshall) who reports, “Target incoming.”
Marshall voiced Hera Syndulla in Star Wars: Rebels. Rook Kast was a Mandalorian, part of Maul’s Shadow Collective, making her debut in Star Wars: Darth Maul - Son of Dathomir #1 (2014). It was an unused Clone Wars ep., “The Enemy of My Enemy” so technically falls in the canon, GL-SOD1. In series form, Rook Kast was voiced by Vanessa Marshall in Clone Wars, “Old Friends Not Forgotten” (2020); FC-CW7/9.
The door opens for the bank vault, inside droids are hauling pallets of credits, a 3P( b-like bank droid informs the hauler droid to ready the credit cargo. Bank guard droids are ready with blaster rifles. Rook sends out a device to attach to one of the ships. The ship comes in to land in the hangar. A spybot (David W. Collins) is outside watching the activity. It hurtles another device inside the hangar before the door closes.
The spybot has a disc-like head and says, “Knock knock.” The device is activated which opens the hangar door. The bank droid warns of the breach as teh Rook’s men swing into the hangar. She blasts a bank guard droid. Others in her crew are Zabraks like Maul. They quickly take down the droids. An alarm is sounded that gets the attention of Officer Pak (Brandon Blum). The English voice of Walla in Sol Bianca: The Legacy (1999-2000) was provided by Blum. It looks like his uniform and airspeeder are out of The Fifth Element (1997).
The Zabraks retreat to the cargo ship, one holds the deactivated bank droid as a shield, the spybot attaches to the upper hatch of the ship. It detects the TDF airspeeder. Rook activates a device on her wrist gauntlet that sends cables out like spider webs. A police airspeeder is destroyed, but Officer Pak evades the trap. They pursue the enemy ship and Spybot fires at them! Officer Pak’s airspeeder smokes from the damage, he tells his droid partner to run a scan.
He reports that there is an unidentified shuttle. He orders all TDF units to that point. A Kom’rk-class fighter descends at a building, the Death Watch ship rotates its dagger-like side wings when landing. Rook Kast orders her crew to move the credits to the other ship. Officer Pak blasts his way to the landing site and his airspeeder is hit by multiple blaster fire. He has the bank robbers to drop their weapons with his TDF backup.
Rook Kast just stands up. From the steps of the misty Kom’rk ship comes dark boots and the theme from “The Duel Begins” from The Phantom Menace. They see the dark cloak of Maul (Sam Witwer) who ignites his double bladed lightsaber. Witwer has been voicing Maul since Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He started with the Clone Wars episode, “Brothers” (2012); GL-CW4/2.
The red glow covers Officer Pak and his droid. Maul spins his lightsaber deflecting the blaster fire. He leaps, Pak’s face is startled, and Maul swings his lightsaber! We hear the theme song of the show as the burning title smokes away like coals. We see the blue-lit buildings of Janix’s city with the sounds of police sirens. In the shadows is Devon Izara (Gideon Adlon) senses something, Eeko-Dio Daki (Dennis Haysbert) says it is not their concern. Adlon voiced Pak Redia in a 20245 episode of Young Jedi Adventures.
Devon is a pinkish Twi’lek. Haysbert is a veteran actor who played President David Palmer in the show, 24, recently he voiced General Hologram in Wreck-It Ralph (2012). Eeko-Dio is a reptillian Mosyk, a species first seen here, but reminds me of the Trandoshan Jedi Master Sskeer from the Star Wars: High Republic comic book. She takes a yellow fruit from a vendor cart and offers it to Eeko-Dio, but he refuses even though Devon says he is hungry.
He says they should not steal. The Jedi Master asks a stranger for help, but is ignored. Devon leaps to reach a cart in the street. She snatches several green and yellow-striped fruit , but she spills them, and the vendor points this out to a police droid. The droid (Christopher Swindle) with a backup tells her to surrender. Eeko-Dio tells her to be patient. If taken into custody, the Jedi would be easily identified, the last thing they would need after Order 66 is to be exposed to Inquisitors!
She sighs and gives her cloak to the Jedi Master before Devon is taken by the police droids. A low key introduction compared to Maul’s entrance. The city is now bathed in a golden light and a speeder lands at the bank vault site. Captain Brander Lawson (Wagner Moura) walks to the crime scene. Moura starred in political drama, The Secret Agent (2025). He has had voice work as the Wolf in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022).
Captain Lawson has a moustache, white hair at his temples, and a brown jacket. He sighs at the destruction before asking for a scan of the escape route. 2BOT, called Two-Boots (Richard Ayoade) reports that the bank supervisor droid is missing. Lawson notes that the powerful Nico Deemis owns the bank. An interesting play on name of a Biblical figure. Two-Boots notes that Deemis has enemies in the syndicates including his rival, Looti Vario. Lawson says that would be open war for Vario. He adds that they took the droid instead of credits. Captain Lawson suspects it is not any of the sydnicates. I like the police procedural part of this show.
Deemis (John Carroll Lynch) angrily smashes his table. Lynch is in the crime drama, Ballard. The crime lord is a bulky Gran, the goat-like alien with three eyes. A Trandoshan henchman says it must be Vario. Deemis wants a meeting at a neutral place. The spybot has been listening in using a macrobinocular lens. It flies away. In the darkness of a hangar, Rook asks Maul if he had a vision. He says he has seen his apprentice. This must be Devon Izara similar to Maul's attempt to make Ezra Bridger an apprentice away from Kanan Jarrus in Star Wars: Rebels.
She also reports that the crime lords are not fighting with each other. Maul says that this is unusual for Deemis. Rook wonders why they are dealing with crime lords. Maul tells her since the rise of the Empire, other criminal groups have risen; the Pykes, Crimson Dawn, and Vario. We saw the Pykes in the Book of Boba Fett; FC-BBF, and Crimson Dawn wa run de facto by Dryden Vos in Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018); DC-SAS. Maul says they will all pay so he is getting revenge from losing the Shadow Collective. He orders a Zabrak to bring the bank droid. Maul says the droid will be part of his plan. He says the droid will take a message to Deemis igniting his lightsaber!
On the city street, Eek-Dio looks up at the ringed TDF building. Devon is taken to a droid to give her identification. Brander asks about the prisoner and says she is just a kid. He tells the officer to bring Devon to his office. At his office, Lawson reads her charges of robbery and no i.d. On his desk is an image of his family, including wife and son. She wonders if it is his son. There is something about Devon bringing up his son. Wearily, Lawson says that she faces a night in jail without i.d. Two-Boots gets his attention. He runs the recording from the police droid’s memory banks.
Maul leaping with his double-bladed lightsaber. Lawson gets a holo projection of Maul and says, “Laser sword?” Anakin says in The Phantom Meance to Qui-Gon, “I saw your laser sword only a Jedi has that kind of weapon. Lawson says he hasn’t seen a lightsaber since the Clone Wars. He tells Two-Boots to run a recognition scan on Maul. Lawson looking at the data pad is surprised the record is flagged by the ISB, the Imperial Security Bureau, and that any sighting has to be reported. Lawson doesn’t want the interference of the Empire. Maul: Shadow Lord follows the rebuilding of Maul's power, his revenge will sweep across Padawan Devon Izara, the crime lords of Janix, and the galaxy!
Four Double-Bladed Lightsabers out of Five!
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