Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord

Starring

• Sam Witwer as Maul:
  A former Sith lord from the planet Dathomir who is trying to find his place following the end of the Clone Wars.^[4] Witwer said the series explores a lot of questions about the character and is told from his perspective.^[5] He added that the character has relatable feelings but does not have "the tools to express those. All he has in front of him are supervillain tools." Witwer compared this to the character Gollum from J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings (1954–55).^[6] Executive producer Athena Yvette Portillo described Maul as a "seemingly eternal villain" similar to Michael Myers from the Halloween franchise and Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise.^[7]
  • Witwer also provided the voices for Darth Sidious, the Emperor and Maul's former Sith master; and young Savage Opress, Maul's brother.^[8]

Recurring

Guests

Development

When Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021–2024), a spin-off from the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–2020), came to an end, supervising director Brad Rau hinted that another continuation of the "Clone Wars universe" was in development.^[17] During a panel celebrating the 20th anniversary of Lucasfilm Animation at Star Wars Celebration Japan in April 2025, Lucasfilm chief creative officer Dave Filoni and animation vice president Athena Yvette Portillo announced the studio's next animated series to be Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, focused on the Star Wars character Maul. Introduced in the film Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999), Maul was originally portrayed physically by Ray Park and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz. The character was presumed dead until he was brought back in The Clone Wars voiced by Sam Witwer, who reprised the role in the follow-up animated series Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018) and the live-action film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018). Witwer was confirmed to be returning for Maul – Shadow Lord during the Celebration panel.^[4][18]

While working on the previous Star Wars animated series, Witwer and Filoni—the supervising director for The Clone Wars and the first two seasons of Rebels—discussed different ideas about Maul that Filoni felt would be better explored in his own project.^[5] Filoni began work on Maul – Shadow Lord after Lucasfilm Animation staff returned to work following the COVID-19 pandemic,^[7] and was joined by many creatives from the previous series including Rau as supervising director and Matt Michnovetz as head writer.^[19] Witwer was brought onto the series a year before it was announced, and was more closely involved in development than with the previous series, discussing the character,^[20] reviewing scripts,^[1] and providing input on early animation.^[7] Witwer described Rau as Filoni's "apprentice" and explained that Filoni created the series but had more of an oversight role where he would only be involved with day-to-day production at rare times.^[19] Filoni is credited as creator, co-developer with Michnovetz, and executive producer with Michnovetz, Rau, Portillo, Carrie Beck, and Josh Rimes.^[3]

Ahead of the first season's premiere in April 2026, and soon after he was named co-CEO of Lucasfilm, Filoni said a second season was in development.^[21]

Writing

The series takes place around a year after Maul's defeat at the hands of Ahsoka Tano at the end of the Clone Wars, as depicted in the final season of The Clone Wars. This is years before Maul's story comes to an end during the events of Rebels.^[1][22] Maul – Shadow Lord tells a serialized, 10-episode story which Michnovetz described as fast-paced and action-packed. He felt Maul was the perfect character to "drive us through" such a story. The writers included homages to the classic film serials which inspired Star Wars creator George Lucas.^[3]

Witwer said the series finds Maul "dusting himself off a bit" following the end of the Clone Wars and during the beginning of the Galactic Empire's reign.^[1][5] Witwer and the crew reviewed the character's previous appearances to ensure they were exploring questions about him that had not been answered before—including some that Witwer already knew the answer to—such as: why did Maul not reveal that his former master Palpatine was secretly a Sith lord, seemingly remaining loyal to Palpatine despite being discarded and replaced;^[22] how does a character who is "from a time of knights and magic" feel about the Empire "sucking the magic and life and color out of the galaxy";^[19] how does he feel about the destruction of the Jedi Order, his life-long enemy, which Witwer compared to the Joker from DC Comics living on after the death of Batman;^[23] and how does Maul's approach to training an apprentice differ from how Palpatine and other Sith have trained apprentices in the past?^[5] Witwer described the series as "bad guys versus worse guys",^[22] and said they would not try to redeem Maul.^[23] Rau said even Witwer was surprised by some of the new aspects they were discovering about the character. Witwer used his Star Wars knowledge to bring depth and authenticity to Maul, and to help introduce the other cast members to the franchise.^[3]

Michnovetz explained that the series is set on the planet Janix, which features a city inside a crater. He compared it to both Gotham City and Metropolis from DC Comics, with a functioning democracy and law enforcement that has formed a "peaceful accord" with local criminals and gangsters. It features "different levels and layers" like previous Star Wars cities. Maul decides to rebuild his criminal syndicate on Janix because it is untouched by the Empire, although the Empire is gaining power throughout the galaxy and appears in the series through the Jedi-hunting Inquisitors. Michnovetz described them as "secret mercenaries that show up out of the darkness".^[3]

Casting

Sam Witwer was confirmed to be reprising his role as Maul with the series' announcement.^[4] He suggested that sound designer David W. Collins could have a role in the series, similar to how Collins voiced the droid PROXY in the video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (2008) which starred Witwer as Galen Marek / Starkiller.^[19] Further cast members were announced in January 2026: Gideon Adlon as Devon Izara; Wagner Moura as Brander Lawson; Richard Ayoade, who previously voiced the droid Q9-0 or "Zero" in the live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian (2019–2023), as "Two-Boots";^[3][11] Collins as Spybot; Vanessa Marshall reprising her role as Rook Kast from The Clone Wars; Dennis Haysbert as Master Eeko-Dio Daki; Chris Diamantopoulos as Looti Vario; Charlie Bushnell as Rylee Lawson; Steve Blum as Icarus; and A. J. LoCascio as the Inquisitor Marrok.^[3][11] Marrok was introduced in the first season of the live-action series Ahsoka (2023), where he was portrayed by Paul Darnell.^[11][24] Marshall and Blum both starred in Rebels, respectively as Hera Syndulla and Zeb Orrelios, and Michnovetz said Maul – Shadow Lord features "a greatest hits package" of voice actors returning from previous Star Wars projects.^[6] Another Inquisitor, the Eleventh Brother, also appears in the series. He was voiced by Clancy Brown in the animated series Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi (2022).^[11] Brown and Ewan McGregor are credited for voicing their respective Star Wars characters Savage Opress and Obi-Wan Kenobi for flashbacks, though it is unclear if they recorded new dialogue or if archival recordings were used. For those flashbacks, Witwer voiced Darth Sidious, as he did in some previous projects starting with The Force Unleashed, and also young Savage.^[8][25] Witwer was asked to record Sidious and young Savage, alongside Maul both in his past, young and spider forms, by Rau under the rationale that because those visions were coming from Maul's heads, they had to sound with Maul's own voice.^[26]

Animation and design

As with the previous Star Wars animated series, the animation was provided by CGCG, Inc. and Lucasfilm Animation's internal team.^[3] Key creatives returned from previous Lucasfilm Animation projects, including animation supervisor Keith Kellogg, cinematography and effects lead Joel Aron, and sound designer David W. Collins.^[19] Portillo said the crew improved all aspects of their work compared to the previous series, including the quality of assets, body mechanics, facial animation, lighting, effects, and matte paintings, even when compared to their most recent work on The Bad Batch and Star Wars: Tales of the Underworld (2025).^[3][7] She attributed the improvements to Filoni challenging the crew to move out of their comfort zones and avoid becoming complacent. Filoni praised the team's work on the series, saying they were "actually creating cinema" with the new episodes.^[7]

The series features a similar animation style to The Clone Wars and the other previous series, but is more stylized to reflect its focus on Maul and the "gritty" setting of the planet Janix.^[3][20] Filoni described the style as "in that Clone Wars world, but a little bit more extreme". Witwer called it "more edgy and jagged and dangerous",^[20] and said Aron was giving the series "painterly malice and thick shadows and reds and purples and all kinds of incredible lighting".^[19] Aron took inspiration from classic filmmaking techniques to include physical elements in the series, including painting brush strokes on glass and photographing them so they could be inserted into the animation, and creating matte paintings on physical canvases rather than making them with digital tools. Kellogg worked with the animators at CGCG and Lucasfilm to improve the performances of the lead characters. Portillo stated that Witwer influenced the nuances in Maul's performance, and gave as an example a tea ceremony Maul conducts with Devon. This was based on a tea ceremony that Witwer took part in while in Japan.^[3]

Music

Composers Kevin, Sean, and Deana Kiner returned from previous Star Wars animated series.^[27] They finished composing the score for the final episode and were ready to record it in late January 2026.^[28] The first track from their score, "Shadow Lord", was released digitally by Walt Disney Records on April 9, 2026, ahead of a full soundtrack album release for the first season.^[29]