The Star Wars universe expands itself further with yet another animated show that’s been developed by Dave Filoni and Matt Michnovetz. We’ve seen a lot from Maul (Sam Witwer) since he was first sliced in half at the end of Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace, with him returning in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. It was thought that his story had come to a conclusion but there are still some gaps missing in Maul’s tale and Maul – Shadow Lord is here to fill those gaps in.
Maul has lost everything since the Clone Wars have ended, and even he himself has noted how things have changed. “As the Empire has risen, we have all been made to suffer,” he says when talking to Rook Kast (Vanessa Marshall), a Mandalorian warrior who was an old ally of his and working with his Shadow Collective. He’s lost everything and is beginning to rebuild his criminal syndicate, but to do that, he needs to steal everything back from the people that betrayed him and prospered from his fall: the Pykes, Crimson Dawn and Looti Vario (Chris Diamantopoulos).
Maul – Shadow Lord Episode 1, “The Dark Revenge”, throws us straight into the midst of Maul’s plans as we watch the Shadow Collective scale down the building of a bank in the Banking district which belongs to Nico Deemis (John Carroll Lynch). With the help of the Spybot (David W. Collins), they make it inside, entering a shootout with the guards. They take out the guards, taking with them a shipment of credits from the bank and the Bank Supervisor Droid (Helen Sadler), who’s badly damaged.
As they make their escape, local law enforcement begins to give chase. While they’re able to escape some, they eventually reach the roof of a building where the police believe to have them surrounded. But in pure, epic, badass fashion, Maul appears to the backtrack of “Duel of the Fates”, deflecting the blasts of the police and slicing them straight into the title card of the show, and the decision to open the show with a cold open and not the usual Star Wars opening is a fantastic creative choice that sets in stone the tone of Maul – Shadow Lord.
We get introduced to two characters this episode that seem like they’re going to be of great importance to the series. The first is Devon Izara (Gideon Adlon), a young female Twi’lek who’s seen with her Master Eeko-Dio Daki (Dennis Haysbert). They both witness the chaos that just took place, but her master tells her that it isn’t any of their concern. We see them both going hungry on the streets; the master would rather rely on the kindness of people to get food, while Devon would rather take the easy route and steal the food.
She doesn’t pay any mind to her master and is caught stealing and is swiftly charged with theft. She goes along with them, following her master’s words that they will “surely see to reason” and she’ll “soon be released”. There’s not much to gain from Devon here but we can assume from their interactions that they’re Jedi in hiding and she’s a padawan that’s struggling to see the moral ground that her master does, considering the poor situation they’re currently in.
We then have Brander Lawson (Wagner Moura), a detective who’s investigating the bank robbery and worried about the war that might happen in the criminal underworld if they don’t figure out who put the drop on Deemis’ bank. Within the first few moments of meeting this character, we notice that he’s very similar to Maul in the sense that he’s calculated. Despite his droid partner, Two-Boot (Richard Ayoade), suggesting that Vario could’ve been a possibility, Lawson dismisses it, noting it wasn’t a regular bank heist and how clean the overall job was. Lawson might just be your regular guy, but his instincts are proving he could be a formidable foe for Maul when it comes down to intellect.
In the meantime, the Shadow Collective are using a Spybot so they can watch Deemis react to his bank being hit. As expected by everyone else aside from Lawson, Deemis also believes that Vario is the one behind the hit, but even if he isn’t, someone’s going to pay for making a mockery of him.
Maul has been having visions of an apprentice, and they’re only getting clearer as they get closer. Who this person is, we currently don’t know, but some signs later on in the episode point to a particular character. We finally learn that the reason they took the Bank Supervisor Droid was to use it to send a message to Deemis, a message that will set everything in order for Maul.
At the Law Enforcement Station, Devon is refusing to give her name, and although it seems like Lawson would have easily let her go if she cooperated, she chooses a night in the cell. Lawson has bigger things to worry about as Two-Boot shows him footage of the previous night where Maul is seen attacking his peers. After doing a facial scan on him, his file comes up classified by the Imperial Security Bureau (ISB), with Two-Boot urging that they must report it as far as protocols go, but Lawson doesn’t want the empire getting involved and complicating their matters. Lawson is the type of detective that follows procedures, but only when they concern him.
Deemis sets up a meeting with Vario to get straight down to the point and figure out if he was the one who took a hit at his bank. Vario denies the allegations and instead suspects Maul, who would be the only one capable and brave enough to do such a thing. They’re aware that they betrayed him and that if he’s around, they’ll be targets. Unfortunately for them, Maul has planned everything out, and it’s revealed that on the platter is the severed head of the droid, angering Deemis, which causes him to blast at Vario.
The two begin to have a shootout, but Vario comes out on top by catching Deemis off guard and shooting him dead. He tries to escape, but the Shadow Collective is on his tail. Their car chase ends with Vario’s vehicle being destroyed and yet another shootout about to begin, but the police arrive, and throughout the chaos of it all, the Shadow Collective manage to escape, but Vario is now in the hands of the law enforcement.
Back at the station, Vario asks Lawson if he knows of the Shadow Collective, which he doesn’t. Lawson keeps Vario under watch and puts the station on alert, which unbeknownst to him is the smartest move, as Maul is planning to attack the station and finish the job. As expected, Maul doesn’t play around, and the station begins to lose control as the Shadow Collective attack. Lawson and Two-Boot get separated by a door, and the latter begins to work to bring the systems back online and get all the doors back open again, but while he’s doing that, the Spybot is intervening, making it harder for him, but ultimately, he brings the systems back online.
As the Shadow Collective continues blasting down the officers, Maul finally arrives and meets with Lawson. Not knowing what he’s up against, he’s quickly knocked out by Maul, who continues taking out officers with his lightsabre as he makes his way down to Vario’s cell. They get it open, and Vario begins to say empty words which mean nothing to Maul until Vario mentions the Pykes, who are also on Maul’s list, and says that he can get him to Krim, the leader of the Pyke syndicate. Maul removes his lightsabre, which was inches away from his head, and issues that he be taken alive “for now”.
Before leaving, Maul senses Devon, opening her cell before the episode ends with her saying ‘Maul’, revealing that she’s aware of who he is, which further confirms that she was likely a Jedi, which is how she has this information. The final shot between them is beautiful, with the red lighting from the station’s alarm reflecting on the colour of the red and pink of their respective skins while also hinting at Maul’s and Devon’s possible moral values.
Maul – Shadow Lord Episode 1, “The Dark Revenge”, continues to prove that animation is the best medium of storytelling for Star Wars because this first episode is unlike anything we’ve got before from the franchise. It’s a grounded (as far as Star Wars goes), gritty, police procedural with a complex villain as the main character. It feels like a mixture of movies like Collatoral and shows like The Sopranos with how they handle and explore their criminals. If the remaining nine episodes can continue at this standard, then Maul – Shadow Lord easily has what it takes to be the best piece of animated Star Wars media.
