It is consistently the case that the animated Star Wars shows provide some of the very best stories in the entire saga, and it looks like that’s going to continue with the newest show, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord.
The teaser trailer for the new series was released today, with the premiere coming on Monday, April 6. The first two episodes will debut that day, and there will be two episodes every Monday culminating with the finale on May 4 in celebration of Star Wars Day. With ten episodes releasing over the span of five weeks, executive producer and supervising director Brad Rau said that this series is highly serialized, telling a connected story all the way through.
Maul – Shadow Lord is set in the aftermath of The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith, after the Republic has fallen and the Jedi Order has been destroyed. When last we saw Maul, his criminal enterprise had been shattered and his allies had gone underground in the final days of the war. Maul was captured by Republic forces but escaped in the chaos of Order 66. We know that by the time of Solo (ten years later) he was running the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate, so there’s a lot of time to fill in a lot of story. This series takes place on Janix, a planed “untouched by the Empire”, which is where Maul plots to rebuild his criminal syndicate. While there, he comes across “a disillusioned young Jedi Padawan” named Devon Izara, whom Maul recruits as his new apprentice.
As Maul plots his revenge, the local police force of Brander Lawson and his side-kick droid Two-Boots are on his tail, as is the Empire – with Inquisitors and stormtroopers dispatched to kill him at the request of Emperor Palpatine.
The trailer is action-packed, and executive producer Matt Michnovetz said that’s what the show is like too: “an action-packed thrill ride” that has “the rush of a roller coaster”. But perhaps the biggest thrill from the trailer comes simply from how stunningly good it looks. Lucasfilm Animation has continued to get better and better with each project, and it looks like Shadow Lord raises the bar once again. This series looks so good.
I was already very excited for this series, since I love Lucasfilm Animation, but this trailer has me even more hyped. I can’t wait!
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