The comments from Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni come in advance of the next animated Star Wars series starring the villainous Darth Maul.
“Honoring That Future”: New Darth Maul Series Will Revisit Original Vision for the Character
StarWars.com has dropped a new post providing new behind-the-scenes insight into Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, the upcoming animated Disney+ series centered on Darth Maul in the early years of Emperor Palpatine’s rule.
The show will debut with a two-episode premiere on April 6, 2026, followed by two new episodes each week leading up to the finale on May 4, 2026.
The series follows Maul as he seeks to rebuild his criminal syndicate on Janix, a world described as untouched by the Empire. Along the way, he encounters a young Jedi Padawan, Devon Izara, while also facing Imperial Inquisitors, including Marrok, the mysterious First Brother who previously appeared in the live-action Ahsoka.
Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer and series creator Dave Filoni says the project draws from previously unexplored periods in Maul’s history and reflects ideas he and George Lucas had discussed for the character after Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
“Maul is a character that’s our responsibility. 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.”
Filoni also says the show’s animation style was designed to feel more aggressive and stylized than earlier Lucasfilm Animation series, while still building on the visual language of earlier animated productions.
“I wanted the style to be a bit more aggressive, a bit more edgy, a bit more painterly than everything we had done. I wanted the renders to be reflective of Maul and his aggressive nature. Everything’s a little bit more chewed, a little bit more expressive than it was in Bad Batch and Clone Wars before it. So it’s an extension of that style, but just a little bit more intense.”
The post also highlights a new poster for the series, featuring Maul alongside several new characters playing major roles throughout the show. An Imperial Star Destroyer can be seen looming over the setting of Janix in the background.
The announced voice cast includes Sam Witwer as Maul, Gideon Adlon as Devon Izara, Wagner Moura as Brander Lawson, Richard Ayoade as Two-Boots, Dennis Haysbert as Eeko-Dio Daki, Chris Diamantopoulos as Looti Vario, Charlie Bushnell as Rylee Lawson, Vanessa Marshall as Rook Kast, David W. Collins as Spybot, A.J. LoCascio as Marrok, and Steve Blum as Icarus.
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