It sounds like Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord will revisit some of George Lucas’ original ideas for Darth Maul before he sold Lucasfilm to Disney. Introduced in 1999’s The Phantom Menace, Maul became an instantly iconic and recognizable character that many fans felt was underutilized. Lucas revived the character in 2011 during The Clone Wars and seemingly had big plans for the character in his original pitch for a Star Wars sequel trilogy, which were ultimately scrapped once Disney put the films into development. Maul is finally getting the spotlight with his own animated series, Maul — Shadow Lord, which sees Sam Witwer reprising the voice of the character after The Clone Wars and Rebels. Speaking with Star Wars.com, series creator and now co-president of Lucasfilm Dave Filoni hints that the series will canonize some of Lucas’ original ideas for the iconic villain. “George [Lucas] and I had had some talks about Maul over the years and what his plans for Maul had been. And so I felt it was a way of honoring that future that we were going to have and finally bringing some of it to light,” said Filoni.

Maul: Shadow LordDisney+

In his original pitch for Episode VII, George Lucas intended Darth Maul to return as the big bad to fight Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Leia Organa. The seeds of his return would be established in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Lucas’s pitch also involved Maul taking on a female Twi’lek apprentice named Darth Talon, a character originally created for the Star Wars: Legacy comic set 100 years after the original trilogy. Lucas would have ignored the comics and brought the character into the films. Elements of Lucas’ original idea can be seen in Maul – Shadow Lord, specifically with the character Devon Izara, voiced by Gideon Adlon. Devon Izara is a Twi’lek Jedi on the run from the Empire in the fallout of Order 66 that Maul seemingly will take on as a new apprentice. With Maul no longer having the Darth moniker himself, Devon Izara likely won’t rename herself Darth Talon, but the idea of Maul having a female Twi’lek apprentice is a taste of what fans would have gotten from Lucas’ plans for the character.

The other major element Lucas seemed to have planned for Maul was his relationship with the criminal underworld, as seen in the final seasons of The Clone Wars. Filoni seemingly kept this element of the character alive in post-Disney acquisition titles like Solo: A Star Wars Story, revealing that Maul was in charge of the criminal organization, Crimson Sun. However, Lucasfilm has since made it impossible for Maul to be alive and active during the era of the sequel trilogy, as Star Wars: Rebels depicted the character’s death. The upcoming Disney+ might not be a one-to-one translation of Lucas’ original plans, but it is a way of folding in the ideas and themes into the wider franchise that will enrich both the world and the character.

Release Date

April 6, 2026

Network

Disney+

Gideon Adlon

Devon Izara (voice)

David C. Collins

Spybot (voice)