Max Nocerino 
I’m not overly impressed with Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord so far, but it’s still super-early, and I’m sure it will get better as the plot fully unfolds.
The whole Star Wars community was super-hyped for Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, and while it wasn’t bad, I felt like I’ve been there and done that!
So far, 2026 is an interesting year for Star Wars. Kathleen Kennedy has been ousted as the head of Lucasfilm, and Star Wars is returning to the big screen with The Mandalorian and Grogu after a 7-year hiatus. Even though the internet should be blowing up with anticipation for this movie, all eyes were instead on Maul – Shadow Lord. The premise is very intoxicating. We see Maul, working in the shadows (presumably for revenge), post-Order 66, as he tries to salvage what is left of his collapsed criminal enterprise.
The animation in Star Wars is like a fine wine. It only gets better with age, and Maul is no exception. Sometimes I even wonder if there will ever be a ceiling to how good animation can physically become.
REVENGE
The story is solid. Maul is working towards unknown goals. But basically, he wants to kill everyone who has betrayed him in the past, including his former Master, Darth Sidious (whom he has no fear of referring to others by this name; gutsy!). This plot is very simple, and while it works, I can’t help but feel a strange bit of fatigue for Star Wars storytelling. I’ve never experienced this phenomenon as a Star Wars fan, and it is quite terrifying. But perhaps it is also showing that I am growing as a viewer and as a person.
Maul killing crimelords and thugs with his signature double-bladed lightsaber was fun. Still, it’s become such a standard franchise “wow” factor that it’s almost a cliché—the dialogue-cliché. The desire to seduce a young lightsider to become your “Sith” apprentice is a cliché. The old but formidable alien wiseman with unsuspecting, powerful Force abilities-cliche. The high-speed speeder chase through a crowded city planet with law enforcement-cliche (yet only since Clone Wars and other animated TV series). I’m just craving something a little new and unpredictable.
A DILUTED VILLAIN?
Maul is cool, but honestly, thinking back decades to 1999, I actually preferred him saying very little and then dying. He’s just not as authentic as a talkative, devious mastermind with a slight British accent incarnation. They say never to meet your heroes, and this is kind of a twisted take on that. I preferred him as the strong, silent, mysterious type. I don’t know why I’m saying that over 10 years later since he “returned”, but it’s starting to hit me now all of a sudden!
I’m also quite fed up with Order 66 survivors. I didn’t mind a few more besides Obi-Wan and Yoda (that is only logical with the vastness of the galaxy), but at this point, it feels that every Tom, Dick, and Harry survived Order 66, and it dilutes the significance of what Palpatine did. If you peruse Wookieepedia, they even have an entire category for the survivors of Order 66, and the numbers are uncomfortably large! At least 100. This opens a plot “black hole”: why didn’t all those Jedi find each other and attack Palpatine together?
POSITIVES
There are some positive things, however. I like that we get to see more of that grungy Star Wars-style police work that we got a taste of in the Cad Bane origin mini-series. The human with the Spanish accent and his police droid partner are a little clichéd as well. But I love the old-school police equipment and glass cubicles they use at their station, and I like seeing actual people trying to stop domestic threats, besides Jedi. At one point, the guy even brings up a recovered hologram of Maul and does facial recognition on him.
The Empire restricted the identity information, but the algorithms still made a match! This raises a lot of questions in my mind, as I once came across a Reddit post a year or so ago about modern technology in Star Wars, and why nobody ever thought to use facial recognition on a hologram of Sidious, if that technology was available! I also like Maul’s creepy “droid” pet. His voice is so sinister and robotic, and he is basically a Swiss-army-knife droid wrapped in a floating disc.
VERDICT
So, I’m not overly impressed with this series so far, but it’s still super-early, and I’m sure it will get better as the plot fully unfolds. I’m not 100% sold on this Twi’lek kid that Maul wants to train, but it is quite cool that she appeared in one of his visions, and the fact that he actively wants to take down his former Master is a very tantalizing foreshadowing of what might be an amazing finale. Let’s hope we aren’t disappointed.
Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord unleashes the Dark Side on Disney+ every week until May 4th.
Max Nocerino is a regular Staff Writer for The Future of the Force. He is a passionate Star Wars fan and loves the literature of the galaxy far, far away. Follow him on Twitter where he shares his love of the Force frequently!
