‘Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord’ Review: Uneven but Promising

Next month, the “Star Wars” franchise will return to theaters after an astonishing seven-year absence with Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a feature spinoff of the director’s hit Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.” The premiere is a confirmation of what was already clear to fans: that since 2019 — the year both “The Mandalorian” and “The Rise of Skywalker,” the most recent “Star Wars” film, premiered within months of one another — the center of the galaxy far, far away has shifted from the multiplex into our living rooms. While prospective film projects from the likes of Taika Waititi or the “Game of Thrones” creators have failed to materialize, the Disney+ roster has continued to expand at a steady pace, spanning the transcendent (“Andor”), the disappointing (“Obi-Wan Kenobi”) and the harmlessly entertaining (“Skeleton Crew”). 

An interesting side effect of this migration has been the elevation of the animated series “Clone Wars” into a load-bearing pillar of the “Star Wars” canon. Starting with Genndy Tartakovsky’s revered Cartoon Network series, which ran for three seasons beginning in 2003, before rebooting in 2008, “Clone Wars” served as a bridge into the Disney+ era with a final season airing on the service in 2020. (The prior season had wrapped seven years earlier.) As a result, the barrier between the animated offshoot of “Star Wars” and the flagship has blurred: “Clone Wars” character Ahsoka Tano now has her own live-action show where she’s played by Rosario Dawson. 

The latest “Star Wars” series, the creatively punctuated “Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord,” is further evidence of this convergence. The title character is portrayed by longtime voice actor Sam Witwer, whose menacing drawl provides continuity for longtime fans. (Maul was introduced in “The Phantom Menace,” where he was played by Ray Park and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz, but is a staple of “Clone Wars,” which begins in the same time frame as George Lucas’ prequel trilogy.) But Witwer is surrounded by high-profile costars like recent best actor Oscar nominee Wagner Moura (“The Secret Agent”), comedian Richard Ayoade and “24” stalwart Dennis Haysbert. “Shadow Lord” is even created by Dave Filoni, the de facto Kevin Feige figure of the franchise. Filoni, who developed “Shadow Lord” with head writer Matt Michnovetz, is returning to his roots here, having showran the post-Tartakovsky version of “Clone Wars” since 2008, but is doing so after several promotions.

Over the eight episodes screened for critics of an eventual 10, “Shadow Lord” can feel as stranded between tentpole and side quest as its CV implies. Set on the urban planet Janix in the early days of the Galactic Empire, post-“Revenge of the Sith,” “Shadow Lord” introduces Maul as a crime baron working to dominate competing factions of smugglers. Like the former Sith Lord’s cybernetic legs or his origin story alluded to in flashbacks, Maul’s current vocation is explained by “Clone Wars,” but may be confusing to newcomers who mostly remember the character for his double-sided red lightsaber. The reliance on outside knowledge to give certain climactic moments their impact can undercut their intended effect.

But “Shadow Lord” also traffics in “Star Wars” staples that retain their half-century-old power in the popular imagination. In his quest to exact revenge on those who have wronged him, Maul sets his sights on Devon (Gideon Adlon, whose mother Pamela also makes an aural cameo), a Jedi padawan turned refugee after the order’s demise. On the run with her pacifist master Eeko-Dio-Daki (Haysbert) — the contrast between his name and Devon’s extremely normal one being classic “Star Wars” stuff — Devon is somewhat open to the dark side’s seductive pull as Maul seeks to recruit her for his own ends. That temptation has led to some of the best scenes “Star Wars” has to offer, from the push-pull between Rey and Kylo Ren in the most recent film trilogy to Leslye Headland’s underrated, rudely canceled “The Acolyte.” Maul and Devon’s dynamic doesn’t yet reach those heights, but it recalls them enough to hold our interest.

As an animated series, the visual style of “Shadow Lord” has the same ups and downs as its central story. The “Blade Runner”-like cityscape of Janix is arresting, as are the various lightsaber battles. But the character design can alternate between the unattractively blocky — as with Moura’s police captain Lawson, who’s trying to do his job without the intrusion of the Empire — and the arresting, like the paintbrush-like effects on Maul’s close-ups. “Shadow Lord” can capably move the “Clone Wars” story forward, but it’s not yet ready to serve as a “Star Wars” standard-bearer on its own. It’s a good time for the theatrical release schedule to finally get going again.

The first two episodes of “Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord” are now streaming on Disney+, with remaining episodes airing in two-episode installments on Mondays.