The Next Big Star Wars Show Is Stealing DC’s Most Provocative Trick
It’s never a bad idea to zoom in on a villain.
Maul is one of the most fascinating characters in the Star Wars universe. For the fans who only watch the movies, he’s the Zabrak who was bisected in The Phantom Menace and then popped up in the post-credits scene of Solo. But for those who watched The Clone Wars and Rebels, he’s the subject of one of the most enduring stories in Star Wars canon, stretching from the beginning of the prequel trilogy to the end of Rebels.
Now, after more than two decades, he’s finally getting a TV series of his own, and it’s following the same formula as one of the best TV shows of 2024 — meaning it could become the next big Star Wars hit.
Maul has a whole other life shown in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels.
Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord is the story of a secondary, heavily made-up villain from the hit first movie in a franchise who ventures to start a criminal empire from scratch. Sound familiar? That premise also describes The Penguin, the HBO live-action spinoff of Matt Reeves’ The Batman starring Colin Farrell as The Penguin, aka Oz Cobb.
The differences don’t stop there. The Penguin also introduced Sofia Gigante (neé Falcone), a new character with whom Oz forms a tenuous connection. We don’t know much about Maul — Shadow Lord, but it seems like there’s a new character introduced named Devon Izara, a Force-sensitive Twi’lek that crosses paths with Maul, and certainly seems like the Sofia Gigante to Maul’s Oz Cobb.
Maul — Shadow Lord could do for Star Wars what The Penguin did for DC Studios.
Maul, like Oz, is pretty dang evil in the movies, but he’s got a vast backstory and lots of pathos as a singular character. When that part of Oz’s character was played up in The Penguin, it turned out to be one of DC Studios’ biggest successes, garnering multiple Emmy nominations and a win for Cristin Milioti for her performance as Sofia. As an animated series on Disney+, it’s unlikely that Maul — Shadow Lord will reach the same heights, but it could do for Star Wars’ new era what The Penguin did for DC Studios’ new era: prove that even while blockbuster movies are on the horizon, greatness can still be achieved by TV shows by focusing on characters that are just parts of an ensemble elsewhere.
Star Wars TV may be moving on to movies like The Mandalorian and Grogu and Star Wars: Starfighter, but don’t count out the TV side just yet — this show proves the franchise is following a formula for success.
