REVIEW: 'Maul – Shadow Lord' is a neo-noir trip to the dark side
From the moment he ignited his iconic dual-bladed lightsaber in the very first teaser for The Phantom Menace back in 1998, Darth Maul captured the hearts and imaginations of Star Wars fans the world over. Who he was and what role he would play in the much-awaited Prequel Trilogy were the subjects of endless speculation, with Maul appearing as a key figure in the film’s promotional material. Unfortunately, much like Boba Fett in the Original Trilogy before him, Darth Maul got the short end of the narrative stick, speaking a grand total of two lines (three, if you count, “Yes, my master”) in his big screen debut before winding up on the wrong side of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s lightsaber.
While Boba Fett would be retroactively redeemed by subsequent years of novels and comics (before making a spectacular return to live action in The Mandalorian, only to then squander it in The Book of Boba Fett), Maul would return to credibility via The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series, which reinvented him as a vengeful crime lord. While a surprise live-action cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story hinted at big things to come, that film’s underwhelming reception nixed any further appearances. Earlier this week, Maul returned to the small screen, headlining his first animated series with Shadow Lord on Disney+.
The story opens with the robbery of a mob-run bank on the planet Janix, as Maul (voiced by Sam Witwer, Being Human) seeks to rebuild his criminal empire following the events of Clone Wars. As Janix’s crime lords debate who was behind it, the robbery is being investigated by police captain Brander Lawson (Wagner Moura, Narcos) and his droid partner, “Two-Boots” (Richard Ayoade, The I.T. Crowd). When one of the crime lords (Chris Diamantopoulos, Silicon Valley) winds up in police custody at the same time as a fugitive Jedi apprentice, Maul engineers their escape. Now on the run from the police, the fledgling Empire, and a Jedi Master, Maul will stop at nothing to reclaim his lost power.
Right off the bat, one is struck by the beauty of Shadow Lord’s visuals. While the character designs are still rooted in those of Clone Wars, the worlds in which they exist and the manner in which they’ve been animated have a decidedly more modern aesthetic. Action scenes, in particular, feature a vibrance hewing closer to Arcane and some installments of Star Wars Visions, giving Shadow Lord a distinct visual energy. This is a more dangerous side to the franchise than we’re used to seeing, and showrunner Dave Filoni (Avatar: The Last Airbender) knocks this descent into the dark side out of the park.
The use of detectives Lawson and Two-Boots adds to the freshness, introducing neo-noir and police procedural elements to the story that work surprisingly well here. Sure, Moura’s Lawson may not be pop culture’s first burned-out cop with a failed marriage and a coffee addiction, but he’s definitely the only one paired with a by-the-book droid partner voiced by the brilliant Ayoade, who was seemingly genetically bred for the part. To be honest, Lawson and Two-Boots are so much fun together that one honestly wouldn’t mind an entire show built around their banter-filled adventures, solving crimes while trying to avoid bringing the Empire into their investigations.
Which brings us to the parts that felt all too familiar, namely the plight of fugitive Jedi apprentice Devon (Gideon Adlon, The Society) and her Master, Eeko-Dio Daki (wonderfully voiced by 24’s Dennis Haysbert). Shadow Lord takes place shortly after the implementation of Order 66, which saw the Jedi slaughtered en masse during Emperor Palpatine’s rise to power, a culling so all-encompassing that the galaxy barely remembered the lightsaber-wielding peacekeepers two decades later. Despite Obi-Wan making it sound like he was the last Jedi in A New Hope, years of books, comics, cartoons, and video games have revealed a hilariously large number of practitioners who survived the purge, to the point that Devon and Eeko’s very existence is tiresome.
Thankfully, Filoni and his team use the overly familiar premise to showcase Maul’s abilities as a manipulator to turn Devon on his side. For their parts, the actors play their characters’ animosity well, with the seething menace of Witwer’s Maul contrasting against the inexperience of Adlon’s Devon. While Witwer has only ever played Maul in voiceover, the man pretty much is Maul at this point, having carved out a section for the character in the Star Wars mythos light-years beyond anything seen in The Phantom Menace.
All told, Maul – Shadow Lord may not break new ground, but it’s an undoubtedly fascinating, well-crafted take on one of Star Wars’ biggest opportunities. Of course, given what we already know of the character from Clone Wars and Rebels, there’s an easy argument to be made that the show probably didn’t need to be made, but the clear love that Filoni and his collaborators have for this franchise makes it well worth a look.
Disclaimer: PhilSTAR L!fe was provided with early access to Maul – Shadow Lord, courtesy of Disney+. The series launched with a two-episode premiere on April 6. Watch the official trailer below.
