**SPOILERS**


'Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord' Is an Uneven
but Promising Extension of the 'Clone Wars' Saga
------------------------------------------------
Next month, the "Star Wars" franchise will return to theaters
after an astonishing seven-year absence with Jon Favreau's
"The Mandalorian and Grogu," a feature spinoff of the
director's hit Disney+ series "The Mandalorian." The premiere
is a confirmation of what was already clear to fans: that
since 2019 -?the year both "The Mandalorian" and "The Rise of
Skywalker," the most recent "Star Wars" film, premiered within
months of one another -?the center of the galaxy far, far away
has shifted from the multiplex into our living rooms. While
prospective film projects from the likes of Taika Waititi or
the "Game of Thrones" creators have failed to materialize, the
Disney+ roster has continued to expand at a steady pace,
spanning the transcendent ("Andor"), the disappointing
("Obi-Wan Kenobi") and the harmlessly entertaining
("Skeleton Crew").

An interesting side effect of this migration has been the
elevation of the animated series "Clone Wars" into a
load-bearing pillar of the "Star Wars" canon. Starting with
Genndy Tartakovsky's revered Cartoon Network series, which ran
for three seasons beginning in 2003, before rebooting in 2008,
"Clone Wars" served as a bridge into the Disney+ era with a
final season airing on the service in 2020. (The prior season
had wrapped seven years earlier.) As a result, the barrier
between the animated offshoot of "Star Wars" and the flagship
has blurred: "Clone Wars" character Ahsoka Tano now has her
own live-action show where she's played by Rosario Dawson.?

The latest "Star Wars" series, the creatively punctuated "Star
Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord," is further evidence of this
convergence. The title character is portrayed by longtime voice
actor Sam Witwer, whose menacing drawl provides continuity for
longtime fans. (Maul was introduced in "The Phantom Menace,"
where he was played by Ray Park and voiced by Peter
Serafinowicz, but is a staple of "Clone Wars," which begins in
the same time frame as George Lucas' prequel trilogy.) But
Witwer is surrounded by high-profile costars like recent best
actor Oscar nominee Wagner Moura ("The Secret Agent"), comedian
Richard Ayoade and "24" stalwart Dennis Haysbert. "Shadow Lord"
is even created by Dave Filoni, the de facto Kevin Feige figure
of the franchise. Filoni, who developed "Shadow Lord" with head
writer Matt Michnovetz, is returning to his roots here, having
showran the post-Tartakovsky version of "Clone Wars" since 2008,
but is doing so after several promotions.

Over the eight episodes screened for critics of an eventual 10,
"Shadow Lord" can feel as stranded between tentpole and side
quest as its CV implies. Set on the urban planet Janix in the
early days of the Galactic Empire, post-"Revenge of the Sith,"
"Shadow Lord" introduces Maul as a crime baron working to
dominate competing factions of smugglers. Like the former Sith
Lord's cybernetic legs or his origin story alluded to in
flashbacks, Maul's current vocation is explained by "Clone Wars,"
but may be confusing to newcomers who mostly remember the
character for his double-sided red lightsaber. The reliance on
outside knowledge to give certain climactic moments their impact
can undercut their intended effect.

But "Shadow Lord" also traffics in "Star Wars" staples that
retain their half-century-old power in the popular imagination.
In his quest to exact revenge on those who have wronged him, Maul
sets his sights on Devon (Gideon Adlon, whose mother Pamela also
makes an aural cameo), a Jedi padawan turned refugee after the
order's demise. On the run with her pacifist master Eeko-Dio-Daki
(Haysbert) - the contrast between his name and Devon's extremely
normal one being classic "Star Wars" stuff -?Devon is somewhat
open to the dark side's seductive pull as Maul seeks to recruit
her for his own ends. That temptation has led to some of the best
scenes "Star Wars" has to offer, from the push-pull between Rey
and Kylo Ren in the most recent film trilogy to Leslye Headland's
underrated, rudely canceled "The Acolyte." Maul and Devon's
dynamic doesn't yet reach those heights, but it recalls them
enough to hold our interest.

As an animated series, the visual style of "Shadow Lord" has the
same ups and downs as its central story. The "Blade Runner"-like
cityscape of Janix is arresting, as are the various lightsaber
battles. But the character design can alternate between the
unattractively blocky - as with Moura's police captain Lawson,
who's trying to do his job without the intrusion of the Empire -?
and the arresting, like the paintbrush-like effects on Maul's
close-ups. "Shadow Lord" can capably move the "Clone Wars" story
forward, but it's not yet ready to serve as a "Star Wars"
standard-bearer on its own. It's a good time for the theatrical
release schedule to finally get going again.

The first two episodes of "Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord" are
now streaming on Disney+, with remaining episodes airing in
two-episode installments on Mondays.



<https://variety.com/2026/tv/reviews/star-wars-maul-shadow-lord-review-clone-wars-1236706487/>






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