'Maul — Shadow Lord' and Other Star Wars Series to Get You Excited for 'The Mandalorian and Grogu'

Maul — Shadow Lord, a spinoff of The Clone Wars, dropped its two-episode finale today, May the 4th, otherwise known as Star Wars Day. As far as animated series’ go, Maul isn’t a top shelf Star Wars story, focusing on Darth Maul’s criminal syndicate period sometime in 18 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) or a year after Revenge of the Sith. This series is set in a relatively unexplored period of Star Wars lore, which depicts the rise of the Galactic Empire after Sheev Palpatine seizes, to quote the man himself, “unlimited power.” 

Fans of Maul — and they are legion, which is why he is one of the very few Star Wars characters who was retconned back to life even after being chopped in half (the other popular character being Boba Fett, who escaped the Sarlacc Pit for reasons) — should be delighted with this exploration of the acrobatic former Sith Lord’s venture into the criminal enterprise. That being said, Maul — Shadow Lord is not one of Disney+’s top shelf Star Wars animated series. In some ways, it actually does a disservice to the character. 

The whole plot of Maul is basically just another revenge story with Maul consolidating a criminal empire by taking out other mob bosses in order to get back at Darth Sidious. Maul blames Sidious for ‘discarding’ him, seemingly forgetful of the fact that he fell to (two) pieces doing a routine assignment. The show throws in a pair of new characters named Eeko-Dio Daki, a lizard-like Jedi master and Devon Izara, his Twi’lek padawan that only cements how unimaginative Maul’s story is because Eeko-Dio is a typical, taciturn Jedi master and Devon is a brash, young apprentice. It’s a cookie cutter dynamic that isn’t helped by the fact that Devon is yet another Twi’lek female character in a franchise that has no shortage of them. She’s pink compared to Aayla Secura’s blue or Hera Syndulla’s green, so maybe Disney just wanted their own version of The Powerpuff Girls, who knows? The pair’s existence also undermines the gravity and severity of Order 66 because it just keeps seeming like a lot of Jedi survived, after all. Eeko-Dio is never shown to be exceptionally great and neither is Devon, who actually gets captured by Maul. If two average Jedi could survive Order 66, surely there are more of them out there. Ahsoka, at least, is an A tier Jedi. 

Devon exists purely to fuel Maul’s desire for an apprentice, so a large part of the show centers on uncomfortable and awkward exchanges between the two that reads like a corporation trying to poach another company’s top worker. The Sith and Jedi have this almost pathological desire to have an apprentice, and it’s disappointing because Devon is a character who exists purely to explore this need. They say ‘never meet your heroes,’ but they should also say ‘never give backstories to your villains’ because there are moments in the series that chip away at Maul’s mythos without adequate payoff. In one instance, Maul is shown limping after injuring his leg in a combat encounter, hampering him throughout the episode and beyond. But this is a Dathomirian who survived being sliced in half through sheer force of will and hatred, a man who assembled spider legs out of trash using The Force and fed on space rats in order to survive. So why is he limping on an injured leg like a little bitch? Maul — Shadow Lord is a plodding, middling story that might get better in a forthcoming second season. But there’s no need to hold your breath because there’s a lot of Star Wars to binge on this May, which culminates in the release of The Mandalorian and Grogu.

There’s one other series set in the period after The Clone Wars at around the same time as Maul — Shadow Lord, and it’s a more interesting premise with more interesting characters. The Bad Batch premiered on May 4, 2021, and has a total of 47 episodes over three seasons. It features Clone Force 99, a squad of clone troopers with slight genetic mutations — essentially a bad batch of clones — who resist Order 66 and become fugitives from the Empire they used to serve. The Bad Batch is a unique story that centers on clone troopers instead of Jedi or Sith, with an animation style closer to the angular aesthetic of the Clone Wars. Maul’s animation is smoother, more refined, and a little more realistic and cinematic; but the tradeoff in animation quality is a loss of personality, and Maul feels like it can’t decide between realism and stylized art. The Bad Batch feels like a grittier extension of The Clone Wars, so fans of the series and even Rebels should hop on board without any trouble. The main female character is also unique in that she’s a somewhat androgynous clone of Jango Fett who joins Force 99’s adventures to provide that young Disney POV.

Needless to say, the best way to get excited for The Mandalorian and Grogu is to binge watch all three seasons of The Mandalorian. It might not be required viewing since the film is geared to be a fun romp for fans and non-fans alike, but The Mandalorian is some of the best Star Wars storytelling for most of its run and few creators have such a good grasp on the material as showrunner Jon Favreau. It will always be remembered for introducing ‘baby Yoda’, one of the most adorable and recognizable Star Wars characters for the new generation. One also mustn’t discount the fact that the titular Mandalorian, Din Djarin, is played by Pedro Pascal. The third and final season focuses more on Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff) as she ascends to the leadership of the Mandalorians, opening the door for Din Djarin and his little pal to go off on their own adventure.

Tales of the Underworld is among the Tales series of Star Wars stories, which include Tales of the Jedi and Tales of the Empire. Underworld feels specially relevant in that Maul — Shadowlord might have been better served with a tighter story in the Tales format.  The series features the stories of two characters, the Dathomiri Asajj Ventress, arguably the franchise’s most famous female Sith Lord, and Cad Bane, the cowboy-like bounty hunter who makes appearances in The Bad Batch and The Book of Boba Fett. Ventress, like Maul, also comes back from death, which has a lot more to do with the Dathomir Nightsister’s necromantic magics than the popular demand of fans, and her story is a form of redemption arc after death while Cad Bane’s is an origin story of one of Star Wars’ most feared bounty hunters.

There are Star Wars stories of every flavor for fans of every shape, size, or alien race, from the Skywalker saga that spans over 9 movies to great live action versions of animated favorites like Ahsoka to serious and painfully relevant political drama like Andor. There’s no wrong choice when finding something to binge on Disney+, not even the much-maligned The Acolyte, arguably the most intelligent Star Wars show after Andor. Besides, there’s just no arguing against a shirtless Manny Jacinto. May the Fourth Be With You, always.

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