Darth Maul is back, and he has his own show now. Here’s his story leading up to the new series Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord on Disney+.
Of all the classic villains in the Star Wars franchise, there is one that continues to captivate fans even 27 years after his introduction. After what looked like a one-and-done character film introduction back in 1999 and a few prequel books and comics in the following few years, Darth Maul has had a resurgence in the new Star Wars television landscape over the last fifteen years. While his first appearance was played by Ray Park, the character really became fully realized when the truly incredible Sam Witwer became the voice that we now all associate with Maul.
Now in 2026, we finally have a rightfully earned solo project in the form of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord which covers a period that has never been explored for Maul until now. Before you jump into the new Disney+ series, let’s look at Maul’s journey both leading up to and after this new series.
First appearance: The Phantom Menace
The year is 1999 and fans around the world are all excited for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, the first new entry in the series since 1983. The film was a prequel to the original trilogy and follows a much more peaceful galaxy than fans were used to seeing. While the film was met with mixed reviews, there was one standout element that became the most memorable aspect of this otherwise underwhelming film. That element was a brand-new character named Darth Maul. He was a red skinned, tattooed, horned, double bladed red lightsaber wielding Sith who looked like he was about to be the Darth Vader of this new trilogy. While most of the film shows Darth Maul as a mysterious dark figure doing the bidding of his master in their fight against the Jedi, the third act brings with it a truly memorable lightsaber duel (set to a now certified classic score) between Darth Maul, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi. This thrilling fight shows off Maul’s ferocious and fast-paced skills with his double-bladed lightsaber and his strong connection with the force. He is able to overpower and kill the Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jin, but is then cut in half by Obi-Wan Kenobi. The last we get to see of this truly intimidating Sith is his separated torso and legs falling down a long shaft. This was, at the time, the end of this character…but as all present-day Star Wars fans know: no one’s ever really gone.
Rebirth in animation: The Clone Wars
In 2011, the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars was in its third season when it introduced a brand-new character who was the same species as Darth Maul. This character, Savage Oppress, was raised by a coven of witches known as the Nightsisters and was sent to be the new apprentice to Sith Lord Count Dooku after he disowned his previous apprentice Asajj Ventress. After that failed and Savage barely escaped with his life, the Nightsisters informed him that he had a brother who needed his help…a brother who would turn out to be Maul. The fourth season would show Savage on a quest to locate his brother on a junkyard planet. He finds Maul with a robotic bottom half of his body that resembled a spider. Maul is in severe mental distress and seems to be filled with anger and pain and fear. Savage manages to get Maul onto a ship and back to the Nightsisters, who use their magic to heal his mind and mend his body with better robotic parts. Maul is back on his feet and now has one mission: find and kill Obi-Wan Kenobi. Maul and Savage set a trap and are able to capture Obi-Wan. Just as it seems that Maul is finally about to enact his revenge, an unlikely alley appears in the form of Asajj Ventress, who helps Kenobi escape.
We next see Maul and Savage in the fifth season traveling around the galaxy and causing chaos and destruction wherever they end up. Maul takes on Savage as his apprentice and the two decide to begin forming an army to use in their continuing mission to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi. After running across a group of pirates, the brothers forcibly enlist them to join their cause. Obi-Wan and Adi Gallia are following the trail left behind by Maul and Savage which leads them to a direct encounter with the brothers. After a fierce fight, Gallia is killed by Savage and Obi-Wan wounds both brothers, causing them to retreat into space. We then find the brothers broken and clinging to life in their disabled ship when the Mandalorian cult known as Death Watch comes across them and decide to take them in. After tending to their wounds (and giving Maul a sweet leg upgrade), Pre Visla (the leader of Death Watch) and Maul begin planning a major operation that would both give Maul the army he needs to take down Obi-Wan and give Death Watch the planet of Mandalore. They team up and begin collecting criminal organizations and gathering forces to use for their invasion of Mandalore.
Photo Credit: Disney+
During this time, both sides become suspicious of the other’s true intentions and plan to take each other out once the operation is complete. The brothers and Death Watch successfully invade and take over Mandalore, capturing all the ranking officials. As expected, Pre Visla also captures Maul and Savage to ensure they won’t be able to kill him and take everything. Immediately after this happens, Maul challenges Pre Visla to a duel and kills him, taking control of everything. This triggers the Jedi noticing something isn’t right on Mandalore and Obi-Wan decides to go on a solo mission to rescue the woman he loves: the Dutchess Satine. Obi-Wan arrives and is taken captive by Maul’s men and brought to the throne room. There, Maul is finally able to begin to hurt Obi-Wan the same way that he hurt Maul by murdering Satine in front of him. As Obi-Wan is rescued by Satine’s sister, Bo Katan (yes, the one from The Mandalorian), the Mandalorians face off against Maul’s Death Watch. During the battle, Darth Sidious shows up to confront Maul and Savage stating that Maul has betrayed him by taking on an apprentice. After a long and brutal fight, Savage is killed and Maul is defeated and tortured with Sidious’s lightening.
There’s a gap of time that the show doesn’t cover due to it being canceled, brought back for another season on Netflix, canceled again, and then brought back on Disney+ for the final season. This period from the end of Maul’s fight with Sidious until the next time we see him in the seventh season of the series is covered in the comic book series Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir which was adapted from unused scripts from the series. It’s a highly-recommended reading as it fills in a lot of story details going forward!
The next time we see Maul is in the seventh and final season of The Clone Wars. Ahsoka Tano first encounters Maul while helping two sisters who are unknowingly working for Maul’s Shadow Collective criminal organization. Maul and his organization are living in the shadows of Mandalore as the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith are beginning. With word spreading of Maul’s control over Mandalore, Anakin and Obi-Wan are unable to lead the charge against Maul and instead decide to convince Ahsoka, who is no longer a Jedi, to return to lead her own Clone battalion and take down Maul. With the help of Bo Katan and her Mandalorian troopers, Ahsoka and her clones take the fight to Mandalore and fight Maul’s forces head on. Maul and Ahsoka come face-to-face quickly, but Maul escapes citing that it’s too soon for their fight. Ahsoka later catches up to Maul and the two talk in the throne room as Maul explains that he was trying to lure Anakin and Obi-Wan to Mandalore so that he could kill Anakin and stop Darth Sidious’s master plan to take over. Ahsoka and Maul fight and Maul is defeated and captured by the Clones. As Ahsoka and her troops begin their journey home with Maul as prisoner, Order 66 is enacted and Ahsoka must fight back against her entire battalion to survive. As Ahsoka fights for her life, Maul manages to escape his cell and fight his way to a ship. Ahsoka sees him attempting to escape and makes the choice to let him leave so she can survive. The last time we see Maul he is flying off into space alone.
A well-deserved solo outing: Shadow Lord
And that brings us to this new series Maul – Shadow Lord, where we find Maul once again trying to pick up the pieces and plan with whatever supporters and resources he has left. While I’m not going to go into what happens in it, we do already have the remainder of Maul’s story out in the form of the animated series Star Wars: Rebels, which takes place after the events of Maul – Shadow Lord and includes the rest of the character’s story. It’s a very satisfying final arc of his character and the show is definitely worth watching for the Maul storylines and for the story in general. This new show looks like it will be the transition from the angry, vengeful, calculated and brutal Maul that we saw in The Clone Wars into the older, isolated and manipulative version we meet in Rebels. And with a second season already green lit before the first season has even premiered, Maul – Shadow Lord is shaping up to be what fans of the character have been wanting since we first laid our eyes on him way back in 1999.
Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord is now streaming on Disney+. Watch the trailer here.
Images courtesy of Disney+. Read more articles by Tyler Carlsen here.
From a young age, Tyler has been amazed by filmmaking and writing. When he’s not watching movies in theaters, he also enjoys playing video games and binging one of the numerous shows he’s watching at any given moment. Working with The Young Folks was a highlight of his writing career and he is looking forward to this new adventure with In Between Drafts!
