Star Wars is bringing back Darth Maul for a new animated series, Maul: Shadow Lord, that will premiere in 2026. Sam Witwer is reprising the role after voicing him in The Clone Wars and Rebels, and he’s promised fans they’ll “learn some different things about this character.”
“He’s got some different traits that you wouldn’t necessarily think he has that make perfect sense from what he’s been through,” he continued.
But do we need to know everything about Darth Maul, what he’s been through, and what his full life encompasses? Or would this character perhaps have worked better without all these additional stories?
Star Wars didn’t need to bring Darth Maul out of (permanent) retirement
Created by George Lucas, the Darth Maul character first appeared in 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace. That movie ended with him being cut in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber. According to Star Wars: The Clone Wars writer Henry Gilroy, Lucas thought about bringing back Maul as General Grievous in disguise in Revenge of the Sith, but he ultimately opted not to. A wise move on his part, I’d say.
The Clone Wars, then, brought Darth Maul back, and he played a prominent role in both that series and Rebels. This may have been a mistake. Darth Maul may have died, but there have still been plenty of media — books, comics, video games, etc. — that have featured the character. It’s not like the character truly ever went anywhere.
Bringing him out of retirement in the way that Lucasfilm did ultimately just feels unnecessary; the cool-looking villain from one Star Wars movie now has a whole shared universe built around him, which really just screams “cash grab.”
The franchise is going in the wrong direction by wringing everything they can get out of legacy characters
“Cash grab” isn’t necessarily a new concept for Star Wars, though, is it? Just look at the Solo: A Star Wars Movie — a project that absolutely nobody was asking for but we got anyway, because who doesn’t want to know how Han Solo got the name Han Solo? Or, even, look at The Emperor’s return in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. That felt like a reveal that was only thrown in there for the sake of fan service.
Legacy characters aren’t the way to continue Star Wars. I am far, far more interested in seeing this Rey movie that’s been in development for some time than I am in retreating back to the Clone Wars era with all these projects that Dave Filoni continues to make. I know they have their fans. But they are very much not for me.
Or, even if we do want to go back in time, let’s explore something new. Speaking of comics, what about a Doctor Aphra show? There are all kinds of stories that have been told about her in that format; let’s see some adaptations of those.
The best way forward for Star Wars is to move further down the timeline and allow the canon to breathe
I’m well aware that Lucasfilm is hesitant to greenlight original Star Wars projects because of the various problems they’ve had over the years. For whatever reason, they have a hard time getting things off the ground and, if they do, there’s typically some sort of production problem that causes controversy. And then something like The Acolyte finally does come out, the reception isn’t great, and Lucasfilm quickly pulls the plug.
That doesn’t mean they need to stop trying, though. Star Wars is Star Wars. People are always going to be interested in the brand. If one original project doesn’t work, the answer isn’t to lean on legacy characters again — try something else! Find creatives with exciting ideas and let them make them! The Star Wars galaxy is supposed to be huge, so let’s keep exploring all the different stories it can tell rather than just relying on the same ones over and over again.
Additionally, all these legacy characters make it really hard for new fans to have a jumping-on point in the Star Wars franchise. Imagine if you didn’t know anything about Star Wars but were interested to learn more, only to find out that there is a movie, four different animated shows, and so much more to watch and read just to learn Darth Maul’s story. You’d probably lose interest pretty quickly, right?
To quote Kylo Ren, “Let the past die. Kill it, if you have to.”
