When The Phantom Menace came out in 1999 to widespread disappointment, it added a new Cool Star Wars Guy With No Personality to the canon. Much like Boba Fett and the rest of The Empire Strikes Back’s mercenaries before him, Darth Maul didn’t have much in his favor besides cutting a mean profile, his Zabrakian horns and double-bladed lightsaber earning a spot in many pre-teens’ hearts even though he barely got a chance to say a word before getting sliced in half and tossed into a pitch-black hole.
It was a bit of a surprise then when Star Wars: The Clone Warstook this disgraced Sith, who seemed both extremely boring and extremely dead, and transformed him into a relatively compelling villain. (Sam Witwer’s theatrical vocal performance deserves a large share of the credit for this.) The response to that revival paved the way for the series’ latest spin-off, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, which takes place in the increasingly crowded years between the prequels and the original trilogy.
It’s a bit of a gambit. Maul is certainly well-known, but he’s still mostly remembered for his lackluster characterization in an infamous film rather than his much-improved presence in The Clone Wars cartoons. Thankfully, the first eight episodes (out of 10) of Dave Filoni’s latest series make a reasonable case for this Sith Lord’s return. This latest retread doesn’t meaningfully expand on the Star Wars mythos or take it to new places, but it is a largely well-executed genre romp that’s elevated by Lucasfilm Animation’s honed aesthetic chops.
The story centers on Brander Lawson (voiced by Wagner Moura), a police detective eager to keep the Empire off his homeworld of Janix; Devon Izara (Gideon Adlon), a Twi’lek Jedi on the run from Inquisitors after Order 66; and Maul (Witwer), who is hell-bent on putting back together his shattered criminal enterprise from The Clone Wars. You don’t need to have seen all of Maul’s interim adventures to watch this show. There are enough explanations from similarly confused in-universe characters so that even those without an encyclopedic knowledge of the Night Sisters and Savage Opress can get by. This isn’t an Ahsoka situation where the entire emotional buy-in is locked behind having caught up on several multi-season animated series. At the same time, it does take multiple episodes for Shadow Lord to dig its hooks in. The problem upfront is that the cartoonish crime wars don’t offer much to chew on. Chris Diamantopoulos’ killer Billy Crystal impression endears us to at least one player—Looti Vari, a pint-sized kingpin in a mech suit—but shootouts and heists take up so much initial screen time that there isn’t enough space for its central characters.
Eventually, though, head writer Matt Michnovetz & co. get to the central point, which is less about Maul’s deeds than the devil’s bargain he provides. In a dismal period where the space fascists have won and are pressing down their boot heels, what good is the Jedi’s morally simplistic creed? Devon, who lives as a refugee alongside her mentor, Master Eeko-Dio-Daki, is forced to suppress her powers and live on the run at the behest of her anti-confrontational teacher. When Maul offers to team up so they can strike down their common enemy, Darth Sidious, this proposal takes on a different tinge than the series’ usual dark-side temptations, mostly because Maul sort of has a point: Sometimes you need to call a truce with a lesser evil to fight a greater one. Instead of the classical posturing of good versus evil, where the bad guy offers a Faustian bargain with a barely concealed sparkle of madness in their eye, here the choice is more similar to the compelling compromises Cassian Andor dealt with.
It isn’t just Devon who faces tough choices. Detective Lawson (a reminder that Star Wars names are not subtle) has to navigate similarly thorny decisions as he attempts to keep the Empire in the dark about Maul’s rampage. He knows that if the Imperials are notified, they’ll use the chaos to justify putting Star Destroyers in orbit around Janex. Even without these ships hanging over the planet, you can feel the Empire’s shadow in every decision, a tension that leaks into personal lives as Lawson navigates an uncomfortable political divide with his ex and his relationship with his robocop partner. Similarly, Maul has more going on than many of his red-saber-wielding counterparts.
Maul also delivers a great deal of what’s become the main event for a certain type of Star Wars fan: acrobatic lightsaber duels. Sharp animation and punchy choreography highlight this warrior’s spasms of violence, as he slices through criminal rivals like he’s reaping wheat. Do these scenes entirely lack restraint and reflect the series’ overwillingness to cram a bazillion Jedi and Sith into an era where the miracles of the Force are supposed to be dead due to fascism? Yes. However, if a show is going to fixate on laser swords, it should at least do it right. Not only are these fights stylish, but they sell Devon’s pull toward the dark side, as her bouts with this Sith Lord grow increasingly violent and complicated.
Over the years, Lucasfilm’s animators have continued to hone an eye-catching approach that smoothly combines 2D backdrops and 3D foregrounds, something they use here to craft moody street corners and derelict buildings-turned-lairs. The direction convincingly whisks us through these noir-tinged cityscapes as wipes and orchestral interludes evoke a classic Star Wars feel.
But even though Lucasfilm Animation has the series’ trademark aesthetic down pat, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord doesn’t break the feeling that this fictional universe is rapidly shrinking. With Dave Filoni as the new president of Lucasfilm, it seems fair to assume we’ll be getting more tie-ins to his past work going forward, which would mean many more projects based on existing characters instead of new ones. Andor managed to deliver nuanced material despite being set in a well-established period, but it also had something that Shadow Lord lacks: a new vision for Star Wars. This show doesn’t have that same insight, and while it delivers what some hardcore fans want (more light saber fights, say), it abandons a galaxy of possibilities in the process.
Elijah Gonzalez is The A.V. Club’s associate editor. Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord premieres April 6 on Disney+.
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