Maul – Shadow Lord, the latest ‘Star Wars’ series from Lucasfilm Animation, is finally here. As a bridge of sorts between The Clone Wars and Rebels that runs in parallel to The Bad Batch, the show tells the story of the fallen Sith Lord as he navigates the underworld and tries to make a name for himself in the shadow of the Empire.
Ahead of the show’s Disney+ debut, we had the chance to chat with Star Wars veteran Sam Witwer (Darth Maul) and newcomer Gideon Adlon (Devon Izara) about the creative team behind the project, the villain’s shocking psychology, the challenges (and opportunities) that come with Star Wars, and even George Lucas’ original vision for the central characters and the larger galaxy.
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Witwer is a bit of an icon in ‘Star Wars’. His long stay in the galaxy far, far away began with the beloved Legends video game The Force Unleashed, in which he starred as Galen Marek (Starkiller), the secret Sith apprentice of Darth Vader. He’d later voice The Son (a manifestation of the dark side of the Force) in The Clone Wars alongside countless additional voices across various Star Wars projects — even embodying Emperor Palpatine himself — but he’s best known as the voice of the horned Sith lord, Darth Maul.
At this point, most fans consider him Star Wars royalty and wonder if he has weighty creative input, and he confirmed that was the case when he got his own show: “A little bit, yeah. They invited me to have some input to keep the character consistent and authentic… It’s been really fun to have discussions about this character again, and we have endless discussions now.”
Of course, co-creator and head writer Matt Michnovetz is the person guiding this ship, as Lucasfilm boss and chief creative Dave Filoni tries to oversee the entire galaxy and the second season of Ahsoka. Witwer had very high praise for the veteran Star Wars scribe and supervising director Brad Rau: “He’s in charge of the writing staff. He’s also the architect of the track that this roller coaster speeds down, and executing Dave’s vision in terms of the structure of the show… Brad Rau also is close collaboration. I mean, he’s the filmmaker,” explains Witwer. “Brad is the guy with the vision on how we execute these things.”
The actor also mentioned Athena Portillo’s – another Star Wars animation vet – key role as producer and executive producer. This is an all-star team that’s been working together for a very long time, and it shows in the final result.
In Maul – Shadow Lord, we also find two Jedi on the run who cross paths with the Sith Lord and the Empire. The padawan, Devon Izara, feels different from most Jedi; she’s got an edgy and reckless side from the get-go. Gideon Adlon (Pacific Rim: The Black) – a relative newcomer to Star Wars after a small role in Young Jedi Adventures – faced the enormous challenge of bringing a new, brave Jedi Padawan to life, showcasing their struggles to resist the combativeness inside her that Maul wants to exploit.
“I think the beautiful thing about voice acting is it’s just as dynamic as doing something on camera,” notes Adlon. “It’s almost more complicated because you can’t see our faces, but we’re able to move. I think the movement that we can convey with our bodies really helps with the way that we’re able to perform with our voices. Being fearless in the room matches Devon’s fearlessness. I know a lot of Jedi are fearless, but Devon feels particularly different because she’s fearless with a wild sense of curiosity that gets her into extremely dangerous situations, but it’s because she’s trying to figure out her path.”
“Maul – Shadow Lord” has a more limited scope and resulting focus when compared to other ‘Star Wars’ shows. It can be seen as an examination of who the post-Order 66 Jedi are, and how Maul presents himself is a huge part of this. He acts as a more sincere, shadowy figure than his former master, and we can’t help but wonder if this is his way of pushing back against Palpatine’s teachings?
Witwer seems to agree: “Maul was certainly trained by Palpatine, so he shares a lot of traits with him. But yeah, absolutely. Interestingly, he’s a lot more honest than his master… In this show, he has to make himself morally distinct from Palpatine. He needs to make the declaration that he’s morally superior or better, whatever you’d call him.”
“That decision comes with responsibility, and the responsibility is to follow through, to have some lines that he will not cross that Palpatine would cross,” explains Witwer. ” And where that comes from is a rebellion from Sidious because he recognizes that he’s in fact the source of all his suffering… Maul has to become kind of the anti-Sidious, but if you would ask Obi-Wan, he’d be like ‘those two gentlemen are very much the same.'”
Maul inevitably attempts to corrupt the young Jedi as part of his plan to take the fight to the Empire instead of going into hiding. Whether that pans out remains to be seen, but Adlon noted the strange parallels between her character’s journey with Maul and her own relationship with Witwer.
“He’s absolutely become my mentor,” reveals Adlon. “And we record at a studio in L.A. that I grew up going to, so the whole thing has really just felt like home. But obviously, being put into the Star Wars world puts a different weight onto somebody’s shoulders. I’m very new to it. I’m still learning about it.”
Adlon also remarked on Maul being a surprisingly straightforward person, adding that “I find that even as Gideon… learning about Maul through our show personally, I find him weirdly honest. The more I’ve gotten to know Maul, it’s like you feel you can’t trust him, but maybe you can, and I am really enjoying figuring out what this dynamic is and where their relationship unfolds.”
Both characters’ arcs are meant to play out over a long period of time, and both actors clearly know where they want those journeys to lead. Adlon said she wants to explore “Why they see such similarities in each other. Why are Maul and Devon sort of kin?” Witwer, meanwhile, remained tight-lipped: “Well, yeah, there’s a lot of places a story like this could go, but we’ll just wait and see.”
We recently talked about George Lucas’ old ideas for the future of Maul — where the Sith Lord was being considered to become the big bad in the original sequel trilogy drafts — and Witwer was kind enough to elaborate on his relationship with Lucas and his vision:
“I have had an overwhelming amount of luck when it comes to participating in Star Wars, so I always feel like I’m getting greedy when I say ‘I would like to have seen me do this. I want me to do that.'” explains Witwer. “You know, I don’t really think of it that way. I just turn up if they say that they need me… I always want to hear what kinds of thoughts and stories George Lucas has dreamed up. When it comes to his exploration of the original Star Wars script, he wrote, I mean, how many drafts were there, and they were also wildly different from each other? But if you look at those drafts, so many of the seeds of the things that we see now come from those scripts.”
We already know how Maul’s story begins and ends, but we now find ourselves in a crucial part of his middle act. Even so, Witwer would love to learn more about Lucas’ thoughts on the Dathomirian Zabrak: “Anything, any notion that George has concerning this character, I’d be all ears. I’d want to know what he thinks or what he’s interested in.”
“Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord” slashed onto Disney+ with a two-episode premiere on Monday, April 6. Two new episodes will arrive weekly. Season 2 is already in the works.