Fans will be seeing the return of one of Star Wars’ most iconic characters in 2026, and it will be in a way the character has never been featured before. Star Wars has had so many characters throughout the years that have made cultural impacts on the Star Wars fandom and beyond, from Luke and Anakin Skywalker to Ahsoka Tano and Rey. Some faces from the galaxy far, far away have left their mark in both live-action and animation, but few have been lucky enough to headline their own project.
When Maul - Shadow Lord is finally released on April 6 on Disney+, it will mark the return of Sam Witwer’s Maul, a character who has been absent from Star Wars content for the past six years. The last time Maul appeared on-screen was with Ahsoka in The Clone Wars Season 7, which last aired on May 4, 2020. Maul - Shadow Lord will be premiering almost six years to the day, and will pick up not long after the events of The Clone Wars Season 7.
Fans are particularly excited to see Maul's comeback since it will finally reveal what the character was up to between the events of The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Maul played a major role in both of those series, but little to no information regarding his character has been revealed in canon between the two projects.
For reference, the last arc of The Clone Wars Season 7 lines up with Revenge of the Sith, so it takes place in 19 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), and the Rebels Season 2 finale, which is where Maul shows up for the first time in that series, is set around 3 BBY. So, there is a 16-year gap in the timeline where fans have no idea what Maul was doing.
It is worth noting that Maul briefly appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story as the leader of the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate. When the character pops up at the end of that movie, those events are supposedly set around 10 BBY. So, Maul was cemented as the leader of Crimson Dawn sometime between the end of The Clone Wars (19 BBY) and Solo (10 BBY), but that would mean there are still nine years where he is unaccounted for.
Maul - Shadow Lord seems to be set closer to the end of The Clone Wars than Solo, so fans most likely won't see Maul rising up the ranks of Crimson Dawn in the upcoming series, at least not in the first season.
Based on the trailers, the synopsis, and other details, the show will more so feature Maul on the run from the Empire, which is continuing to rise to power after it was established at the end of The Clone Wars and in Revenge of the Sith. It is also worth noting that Season 1 will seemingly explore Maul trying to take on an apprentice who was trained in the Jedi arts before the fall of the Jedi Order.
Some fans have theorized that this Force user could turn out to be Darth Talon, a popular Star Wars Legends character who George Lucas had major plans for in his version of the sequel trilogy.
Notably, Shadow Lord could be Dave Filoni's way of bringing elements of Lucas's sequel trilogy to life. It is important to remember that Filoni and Lucas were extremely close, and while Lucas was still in possession of Lucasfilm, he appeared to be grooming Filoni to become his successor. So, Filoni could be paying his respects to George by implementing elements of the creator's plans for what was initially supposed to come after the original trilogy.
Maul's Comeback in Shadow Lord Is More Important Than Fans Think
No matter what occurs in the first season of Maul - Shadow Lord, the show is set to be a major release for Lucasfilm and Disney, as it is the first time that Maul has received an on-screen project with his name in the title. As mentioned, it will serve as the comeback for the character after being shelved for the past six years, which, granted, is a long time for him to be out of action.
After Maul was seemingly killed in The Phantom Menace, fans didn't see him again until 2012, when he appeared in The Clone Wars Season 4. Since The Phantom Menace was released in 1999, that meant there was a 13-year gap between on-screen canon appearances for the character. He had appeared in other Star Wars media in the years between, such as in video games, but The Clone Wars was the first time he showed up on-screen in canon since the first entry of the prequel trilogy.
Maul continued to appear in The Clone Wars in Season 5, which aired in 2013. After Disney acquired Lucasfilm and cancelled The Clone Wars, it appeared as though Maul's story had come to an end. However, as mentioned, he showed up again in Rebels, with his first appearance in that series coming in 2016. So, there were only three years between The Clone Wars Season 5 and Rebels Season 2.
The villain then showed up again in Rebels Season 3 in 2017, where he seemingly died for good. However, he made that Solo cameo in 2018, just one year after Rebels Season 3. Then, he made an epic return in The Clone Wars Season 7 in 2020, just two years after Solo.
So, the six-year gap between The Clone Wars Season 7 and Maul - Shadow Lord is the second-longest gap between appearances for Maul in on-screen canon Star Wars projects, and the longest since the initial gap that took place between The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars.
In a way, that makes his return in Shadow Lord even more important, since fans haven't seen a drought in Maul screentime this long since 2012 (14 years). Notably, it has been longer since fans have gone this long without Maul than the first gap where he didn't make an appearance between The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars (13 years).
Maul is kind of the bad penny of the Star Wars universe in the sense that he just keeps popping up. That is, of course, just a figure of speech, and his presence isn't necessarily unwanted, but it does seem as though Star Wars could be using other characters for its stories.
Regardless, it would be a surprise if this was the last time he ever appeared in the Star Wars universe, and fans are already wondering what his future will look like next. No official announcement has been made from Disney and/or Lucasfilm regarding future seasons of Maul - Shadow Lord, but it would be shocking if it didn't get renewed for at least one or two more installments. Most likely, it will perform well on Disney+, as animated Star Wars projects often do.
So, fans likely won't have to wait another six years to see him again, assuming the show will return for more seasons. When Shadow Lord ends for good, though, Maul's time in the Star Wars universe may be up for good.
He could always be brought back for a Crimson Dawn animated series, but that could also be explored in a future installment of Shadow Lord. In fact, the entire 16-year period between The Clone Wars and Rebels could be fleshed out in Shadow Lord if it is renewed for enough future seasons.
For now, though, it seems as though Maul is back in full force.
