Obi-Wan Kenobi sliced Darth Maul in half and sent him tumbling to his death in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. However, at the behest of George Lucas, The Clone Wars animated series later revealed that Senator Papatine's Sith apprentice had survived.
Now rocking a pair of badass cybernetic legs, his story continued there before the villain eventually returned in Star Wars Rebels (which is where his tale also concluded after one final clash with Obi-Wan on Tatooine).
Solo: A Star Wars Story brought Maul back in live-action, and had that movie received a sequel, chances are we'd have seen more of what he got up to as the leader of Crimson Dawn. Unfortunately, the movie was a box office flop, and fans have been waiting to see Maul return ever since.
Lucasfilm is among the studios skipping this year's San Diego Comic-Con, meaning we can forget about getting any new trailers or casting information. We do, however, have a new look at Maul in his upcoming animated series, Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord (via SFFGazette.com).
It's a suitably badass shot of the former Sith, and one that sets the tone for a series which looks to be a worthy follow-up to both The Clone Wars and Rebels. Whether this means potential live-action plans for Maul have been scrapped remains to be seen.
"After the Clone Wars, Maul plots to rebuild his criminal syndicate on a planet untouched by the Empire," reads a brief synopsis. "In a new series set after the events of the final season of The Clone Wars, Maul rises again to lead the underworld factions."
That's all we have to go on for now. However, this sounds like exactly the type of series Star Wars fans have been waiting to see from Lucasfilm (especially with clones well and truly having run their course). There are also plenty of gaps in Maul's history that would benefit from being filled in here.
Sam Witwer, who first portrayed Maul in The Clone Wars and later reprised the role in Star Wars Rebels, is back to voice the iconic villain. He's made the character his own after taking over the role from The Phantom Menace's Peter Serafinowicz.
"It's about bad guys vs worse guys," the actor said in a recent interview. "This isn’t going to be a show where you find out Maul is a real teddy bear, man. We’re not doing that. But is he as bad as Sidious or Vader? Actually no. From the Sith perspective, this guy has flaws. [There's] humanity that seeps in at various points because of things that have happened to him."
"Maul will question whether creating the Empire was a good idea," Witwer continued. "[Maul’s] like, ‘Is that what [Sidious] had in mind? This is a little scary. Maul comes from a time of swords, sorcery, magic and knights, and now all of that color of the universe is being sucked out of this mechanized Empire. And Maul’s like, 'Is this right? Is this the universe we were trying to build?'"
Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord is currently in production and will debut on Disney+ in 2026.