{"id":559895,"date":"2026-04-02T08:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/559895\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T08:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T08:38:16","slug":"dave-filoni-says-maul-shadow-lord-will-bring-george-lucas-original-plans-for-maul-to-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/559895\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Filoni Says &#8216;Maul &#8211; Shadow Lord&#8217; Will Bring George Lucas\u2019 Original Plans for Maul to Light"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The comments from Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni come in advance of the next animated Star Wars series starring the villainous Darth Maul.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHonoring That Future\u201d: New Darth Maul Series Will Revisit Original Vision for the Character<a data-fslightbox=\"1\" data-type=\"image\" aria-label=\"Open fullscreen lightbox with current image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TWDC-Star-Wars-Filoni-Maul-April-2026.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/TWDC-Star-Wars-Filoni-Maul-April-2026.jpeg\" alt=\"Maul Shadow Lord promo image; series coming to Disney+\" class=\"wp-image-1405114\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1.7781404267471748;width:816px;height:auto\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.starwars.com\/news\/star-wars-maul-shadow-lord-trailer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" aria-describedby=\"external-link-warning\">StarWars.com has dropped a new post<\/a> providing new behind-the-scenes insight into Star Wars: Maul \u2013 Shadow Lord, the upcoming animated Disney+ series centered on Darth Maul in the early years of Emperor Palpatine\u2019s rule. <\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer and series creator Dave Filoni says the project draws from previously unexplored periods in Maul\u2019s history and reflects ideas he and George Lucas had discussed for the character after Star Wars: The Clone Wars. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaul is a character that\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Filoni also says the show\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI 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\u2019s a little bit more chewed, a little bit more expressive than it was in\u00a0Bad Batch\u00a0and\u00a0Clone Wars\u00a0before it. So it\u2019s an extension of that style, but just a little bit more intense.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a data-fslightbox=\"1\" data-type=\"image\" aria-label=\"Open fullscreen lightbox with current image\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/star-wars-maul-shadow-lord-payoff-keyart_6622f2e3.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"729\" height=\"1080\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/star-wars-maul-shadow-lord-payoff-keyart_6622f2e3.jpeg\" alt=\"Maul - Shadow Lord poster for Disney+ premiere on April 6\" class=\"wp-image-1405116\" style=\"width:816px;height:auto\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>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. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wdwnt.com\/2026\/03\/star-wars-drops-maul-shadow-lord-trailer\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" aria-describedby=\"external-link-warning\">You can check out the full release schedule along with the latest trailer in our earlier coverage right here on WDWNT<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Are you excited for the new animated Star Wars project? What are your thoughts on Maul as a protagonist? Join the discussion with us on social media.<\/p>\n<p>For the latest Disney Parks news and info, follow <a href=\"https:\/\/wdwnt.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" aria-describedby=\"external-link-warning\">WDW News Today<\/a> on\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wdwnt\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" aria-describedby=\"external-link-warning\">Twitter<\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/WDWNewsToday\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" aria-describedby=\"external-link-warning\">Facebook<\/a>, and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/wdwnt\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" aria-describedby=\"external-link-warning\">Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The comments from Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni come in advance of the next animated Star Wars&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[125941,12874,205835,248184,232746,208675,248183,203304,248187,102189,88,248188,102190,9466,50349,248189,248190,202408,206,248186,248185,5295,216028],"class_list":{"0":"post-559895","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-animated","9":"tag-animation","10":"tag-baby-yoda","11":"tag-black-sun","12":"tag-cinemacon","13":"tag-con","14":"tag-crime-lord","15":"tag-darth-maul","16":"tag-dathomir","17":"tag-dave-filoni","18":"tag-entertainment","19":"tag-iridonian","20":"tag-jon-favreau","21":"tag-lucasfilm","22":"tag-mandalorian","23":"tag-mandalorian-and-grogu","24":"tag-maul","25":"tag-maul-shadow-lord","26":"tag-movies","27":"tag-nightsister","28":"tag-nightsister-witches","29":"tag-star-wars","30":"tag-twdc"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}