Disney might be changing one of its most iconic characters from the Star Wars prequel trilogy, as the upcoming animated series, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, might rewrite the infamous double-bladed lightsaber-wielding villain.
As explained by Maul’s voice actor, Sam Witwer, during an interview with The HoloFiles, the character will be much more contemplative than he was in 1999’s The Phantom Menace or 2008’s The Clone Wars, and has learnt to think for himself instead of blindly following orders.
“The Empire has taken over, and Maul’s reassessing everything. There were plans in place that were supposed to insulate him from the changes when the Empire came to power, and a lot of the people that were supposed to be there for him were not,” explained Witwer. “He’s getting back on his feet, the dust is clearing, and he’s looking around at the Empire— the thing he and his master had been working toward since he was an apprentice—and thinking, ‘Is this what Palpatine had in mind? How do I feel about this?'”
More notably, as a character infamous for his hatred of the Jedi, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord might see the villain completely rethink his opinions on the opposing side, with Witwer adding that Maul now has more respect for the Jedi then his does for the Empire.
“He was trained to hate and destroy the Jedi without ever questioning it. Now he’s looking at the galaxy going, ‘Boy, we could sure use a Jedi Knight or two.’ At least with the Jedi you knew where they stood. There’s something to respect there. This Empire, he sees no values there, just the naked grab for influence, power, and money. Principles are gone,” Witwer continued. “And he looks at that with a certain level of distaste. He may not have agreed with the Jedi Knights, but at least they had principles. You knew who you were dealing with, and you could reason with that. There’s no reasoning with the Empire.”
This certainly marks a major shift for a character who, up til now, has had a singular goal of destroying the Jedi order. To be fair, this change does make sense, as in Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord’s timeline, the Jedi have been largely driven to extinction, and with the Sith on the winning end, there’s nothing left to keep the Empire’s evil in check, causing a downward spiral of greed and world domination, something Maul doesn’t respect.
However Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord plays out, it would certainly be interesting to see the evolution of such an iconic character into something more than a Jedi-hating villain, and fans can look forward to witnessing this change for themselves when the series launches on Disney+ on 6 April 2026.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
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