\n\tNext month, the \u201cStar Wars\u201d franchise will return to theaters after an astonishing seven-year absence with Jon Favreau\u2019s \u201cThe Mandalorian and Grogu,\u201d a feature spinoff of the director\u2019s hit Disney+ series \u201cThe Mandalorian.\u201d The premiere is a confirmation of what was already clear to fans: that since 2019 \u2014\u00a0the year both \u201cThe Mandalorian\u201d and \u201cThe Rise of Skywalker,\u201d the most recent \u201cStar Wars\u201d film, premiered within months of one another \u2014\u00a0the center of the galaxy far, far away has shifted from the multiplex into our living rooms. While prospective film projects from the likes of Taika Waititi or the \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d creators have failed to materialize, the Disney+ roster has continued to expand at a steady pace, spanning the transcendent (\u201cAndor\u201d), the disappointing (\u201cObi-Wan Kenobi\u201d) and the harmlessly entertaining (\u201cSkeleton Crew\u201d).\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tAn interesting side effect of this migration has been the elevation of the animated series \u201cClone Wars\u201d into a load-bearing pillar of the \u201cStar Wars\u201d canon. Starting with Genndy Tartakovsky\u2019s revered Cartoon Network series, which ran for three seasons beginning in 2003, before rebooting in 2008, \u201cClone Wars\u201d served as a bridge into the Disney+ era with a final season airing on the service in 2020. (The prior season had wrapped seven years earlier.) As a result, the barrier between the animated offshoot of \u201cStar Wars\u201d and the flagship has blurred: \u201cClone Wars\u201d character Ahsoka Tano now has her own live-action show where she\u2019s played by Rosario Dawson.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n\tThe latest \u201cStar Wars\u201d series, the creatively punctuated \u201cStar Wars: Maul \u2014 Shadow Lord,\u201d is further evidence of this convergence. The title character is portrayed by longtime voice actor Sam Witwer, whose menacing drawl provides continuity for longtime fans. (Maul was introduced in \u201cThe Phantom Menace,\u201d where he was played by Ray Park and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz, but is a staple of \u201cClone Wars,\u201d which begins in the same time frame as George Lucas\u2019 prequel trilogy.) But Witwer is surrounded by high-profile costars like recent best actor Oscar nominee Wagner Moura (\u201cThe Secret Agent\u201d), comedian Richard Ayoade and \u201c24\u201d stalwart Dennis Haysbert. \u201cShadow Lord\u201d is even created by Dave Filoni, the de facto Kevin Feige figure of the franchise. Filoni, who developed \u201cShadow Lord\u201d with head writer Matt Michnovetz, is returning to his roots here, having showran the post-Tartakovsky version of \u201cClone Wars\u201d since 2008, but is doing so after several promotions.<\/p>\n
\n\tOver the eight episodes screened for critics of an eventual 10, \u201cShadow Lord\u201d can feel as stranded between tentpole and side quest as its CV implies. Set on the urban planet Janix in the early days of the Galactic Empire, post-\u201cRevenge of the Sith,\u201d \u201cShadow Lord\u201d introduces Maul as a crime baron working to dominate competing factions of smugglers. Like the former Sith Lord\u2019s cybernetic legs or his origin story alluded to in flashbacks, Maul\u2019s current vocation is explained by \u201cClone Wars,\u201d but may be confusing to newcomers who mostly remember the character for his double-sided red lightsaber. The reliance on outside knowledge to give certain climactic moments their impact can undercut their intended effect.<\/p>\n
\n\tBut \u201cShadow Lord\u201d also traffics in \u201cStar Wars\u201d staples that retain their half-century-old power in the popular imagination. In his quest to exact revenge on those who have wronged him, Maul sets his sights on Devon (Gideon Adlon, whose mother Pamela also makes an aural cameo), a Jedi padawan turned refugee after the order\u2019s demise. On the run with her pacifist master Eeko-Dio-Daki (Haysbert) \u2014 the contrast between his name and Devon\u2019s extremely normal one being classic \u201cStar Wars\u201d stuff \u2014\u00a0Devon is somewhat open to the dark side\u2019s seductive pull as Maul seeks to recruit her for his own ends. That temptation has led to some of the best scenes \u201cStar Wars\u201d has to offer, from the push-pull between Rey and Kylo Ren in the most recent film trilogy to Leslye Headland\u2019s underrated, rudely canceled \u201cThe Acolyte.\u201d Maul and Devon\u2019s dynamic doesn\u2019t yet reach those heights, but it recalls them enough to hold our interest.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs an animated series, the visual style of \u201cShadow Lord\u201d has the same ups and downs as its central story. The \u201cBlade Runner\u201d-like cityscape of Janix is arresting, as are the various lightsaber battles. But the character design can alternate between the unattractively blocky \u2014 as with Moura\u2019s police captain Lawson, who\u2019s trying to do his job without the intrusion of the Empire \u2014\u00a0and the arresting, like the paintbrush-like effects on Maul\u2019s close-ups. \u201cShadow Lord\u201d can capably move the \u201cClone Wars\u201d story forward, but it\u2019s not yet ready to serve as a \u201cStar Wars\u201d standard-bearer on its own. It\u2019s a good time for the theatrical release schedule to finally get going again.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe first two episodes of \u201cStar Wars: Maul \u2014 Shadow Lord\u201d are now streaming on Disney+, with remaining episodes airing in two-episode installments on Mondays.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Next month, the \u201cStar Wars\u201d franchise will return to theaters after an astonishing seven-year absence with Jon Favreau\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[88,206,250743],"class_list":["post-567603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-star-wars-maul-u2014u00a0shadow-lord"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567603","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=567603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}