After the next tease star Wars animated series last year at Celebration Japan, today we got our first proper look Maul-Lord of Shadowsreflecting the Sith’s earlier efforts to build his growing criminal empire away from the Emperor’s watchful eyes. From an interesting aesthetic spin to The Clone Wars animated style in exciting lightsaber action, the trailer is full of cool details; here are a few favorites we saw.
6) New World
Although it’s not clearly stated in the trailer itself—and despite giving off heavy low-level Coruscant vibes—Shadow Lord it’s actually set on a brand new planet, Janix, its capital built inside a huge crater. It’s for a good reason, beyond taking us out of familiar territory: Maul isn’t stupid enough to set up shop under his former master’s nose after Palpatine kicked him and his brother Savage out after Maul usurped the kingdom of Mandalore in time. The Clone Wars.
5) TK Troopers
Speaking of another star Wars legacy of the animated series, we get to see a bunch of special Stormtroopers in action throughout the trailer. It was heavily inspired by Ralph McQuarrie’s classic art of the original stormtroopers star WarsTK soldiers, as they are known, have been brought in The Bad Collection as the first wave of non-clone soldiers recruited by the Empire.
Although they were secretly trained by former clone commandos before that, the TK Troopers were formalized along with the abolition of the military with the introduction of the Imperial Defense Recruitment Bill around 18 BBY, giving us a bit more time. Shadow Lord‘s early-rise-of-the-Empire setting.
4) Blade of the Dark Disciple…
While he’s kneeling before the tea set, we get a very interesting glimpse of Maul’s lightsaber in the trailer. Another weapon has been changed to a double-edged saber, using part of Maul’s first lightsaber that we saw him use. The Phantom Menace again The Clone Wars until it was presumed lost after his aforementioned battle with Sidious on Mandalore. We actually see Maul use this new saber The Clone Wars‘ last season, during his confrontation with Ahsoka Tano at the height of the Republic’s siege of the Mandalorian homeworld (it was a duel-y moment in Maul’s life).
But the interesting thing is that the newly installed part of the design already has a beginning in it star Wars: the new hilt part is the same design used by Asajj Ventress in the artwork created for his appearance in the first canon novel Black Student. Thankfully, neither Maul nor Ventress herself keeps the weapon for long: the former gets a new weapon during her appearance Rebels again Solo: Star Wars The storyand what appears to be part of the round guard of the Inquisitorius saber attached to the cross, while the latter returns from the tomb which is seen The Bad Collection again Legends of the Underworld you see him wielding a curved hilt inspired by his first sabers wielded as a Sith apprentice.
3) … and a Totally New Student?
But all that student talk is with us a lot impressed by another character who appears prominently throughout the trailer—a young, pink-skinned Twi’lek Jedi. Named in the ancillary press as Devon Izara (and voiced by Gideon Adlon), Devon is a Jedi on the run with his master, Eeko-Dio-Daki (Dennis Haysbert), and we see him doing many things that are typically ex-Jedi like helping others and fighting the Imperial forces. But it also seems that, pushed by a moment of despair, Shadow Lord he might see her turn to the darkness and join Maul.
Naturally, the young Twi’lek is set up as Maul’s new apprentice star Wars diehards raise their eyebrows at the potential canonization of the common man star Wars a face from the expanded universe: Darth Talon. A red-skinned Sith Lord with very Maul-esque tattoos, Talon was created by John Ostrander and Jan Duursema in the 2006 Dark Horse comic series. The legacy of Star Warsset 130 years after the events of the original movies, where he was one of the two hands of Darth Krayt’s resurgent Sith Empire, alongside Darth Nihil (not to be confused with Darth Nihilus from Knights of the Old Republic IIbut we are distracted by Sith words here).
Although it can be completely crazy for star Wars to canonise Talon in some way, to make Maul’s disciple a role model. George Lucas himself previously expressed his great interest in this character, so much so that one of his first ideas for a sequel trilogy before he sold Lucasfilm to Disney involved the return of Maul from the grave as the villain of the trilogy, with a version of the Talon as his disciple. That never happened, but considering we’ve already seen Lucas resurrect Maul and make him a crime lord The Clone Warsit would not be again It’s amazing to see the modern continuity from your own perspective to Lucas’ vision.
2) Die Is Kast
Speaking of familiar faces, we seem to briefly see another comic character in the trailer working with Maul: a purple-haired woman in Mandalorian armor, seen blasting Maul’s enemies with her wrist-mounted flame at one point. Although that definition may have other people thinking about it Rebels‘ Sabine Wren, who was a bounty hunter before joining Hera Syndulla’s rebel group, time Shadow Lord makes that almost impossible—Sabine is about 16 at the beginning of Rebelsmaking him a small child during this program.
Thankfully, there’s something else when it comes to purple-haired Mandalorian women that makes more sense, confirmed in the show’s casting: Rook Kast. Pronounced, funnily enough, Rebels alum Vanessa Marshall, the cast was created for the Dark Horse comedy miniseries Darth Maul—Son of Dathomiribased on unproduced The Clone Wars a story arc that would have set the stage for Maul’s escape after his defeat on Mandalore. One of the remaining loyal Mandalorian Supercommandos who were part of Maul’s Shadow Collective, Kast helped free Maul from captivity and eventually returned to his cartoon roots in a brief appearance The Clone Wars‘ season seven as one of his lieutenants during the siege of Mandalore, where we see him defeated and captured by Bo-Katan.
1) No One Expects The Imperial Inquisitorius
Back to it and a familiar face, but the trailer hinges heavily on the fact that, no matter how much he wanted to, Maul still hasn’t escaped the shadow of his former master. Palpatine sends more than just stormtroopers to Janix, but also the Imperial Inquisitorius to hunt Maul down in the form of two regular Inquisitors.
Briefly seen in the trailer is Brother Eleventh covered by a bird, previously seen in it Legends of the Jedi again Legends of The state, but the most prominent is Marrok, the gassy Inquisitor brought (and killed) in between Ahsoka‘s first season. The character, who was established at the height of the Inquisitorius as the First Brother, is no stranger to him star Wars animations, which we made a brief appearance in the aforementioned Tales of Empire.
We don’t have long to wait to see what other great connections this show has made: Maul–Shadow Lord hits Disney+ on April 6.
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