Star Wars’ Maul TV Show is the Closest We’ll Ever Get to Two Cancelled George Lucas Stories

January 26, 2026, 9:00am

Darth Maul will return in Maul – Shadow Lord, Star Wars’ next TV series, and it’s a story unlike any we’ve seen before. This is the first time we’ve ever had a Star Wars story that truly stars a villain, all the more impressive given Maul was originally believed to be killed off in The Phantom Menace all the way back in 1999. George Lucas himself realized this mistake, and he chose to bring Maul back in The Clone Wars. But even Lucas would never have imagined Maul as the star of his own show.

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The first trailer for Maul – Shadow Lord sets up an animation unlike any Lucasfilm has made before. It’s visually stunning, setting up a Dark Times adventure in which Maul attempts to re-establish himself as a crime lord during the Imperial era. We already know how this story will wrap up; Maul was running a criminal empire called Crimson Dawn in Solo: A Star Wars Story, but it had all fallen apart by the time of Star Wars Rebels. We’re no doubt in for a treat – but we’re also in for a story that’s pure Lucas.

Janix is the Perfect Payoff for Star Wars: Underworld

Maul – Shadow Lord is set on the planet Janix, described as “one part Gotham, one part Metropolis and a hundred percent Star Wars.” A lawless world untouched by the Empire, this city is built inside a crater, and it’s proved to be a rich environment for crime and gangsters. For Maul, Janix is a sanctuary from the Empire and a place to begin again. We’re in for a story focused on the underworld, one that explores a side of Star Wars that’s never really been put under the spotlight before.

This makes Maul – Shadow Lord a spiritual successor to a canceled story George Lucas himself wanted to tell. Back in 2005, Lucas announced his own intention to make a live-action Star Wars TV show, but it was eventually abandoned due to the costs. Star Wars: Underworld would have been an in-depth exploration of the Star Wars galaxy’s shadier side, although it would have focused on the lower levels of Coruscant rather than the new planet Janix.

We’ve been seeing hints of Underworld for years now during the Disney era, but Maul – Shadow Lord is closer than ever before. Even the unusual artistic style teased in the first trailer feels evocative of the few glimpses we’ve seen of Underworld, of the creative way Lucas rendered Coruscant. It’s not Underworld, of course – that show is long gone – but it’s as close as we’re ever going to get.

George Lucas’ Original Sequel Trilogy Plans Are Being Fulfilled in Shadow Lord

The Lucas connections run deeper than just Underworld, though. As revealed in Paul Duncan’s The Star Wars Archives 1999-2005, Lucas’ original plans for his Star Wars sequel trilogy involved Darth Maul. He imagined Maul as the next villain after the fall of the Empire, working as a crime boss who was eventually defeated by Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa. Lucas obviously adapted a lot of these plans into The Clone Wars, albeit switching the time period somewhat – telling a story in which Maul became a crime lord decades earlier.

Most importantly, though, Lucas intended to tell a story in which Darth Maul took on an apprentice. Lucas quite liked the design for a Legends Sith Lord called Darth Talon, a red-skinned Twi’lek assassin originally envisioned as part of a very different timeline. Lucas re-imagined Darth Talon as Maul’s agent, potentially a continuation of the Sith under his tutelage. The Maul – Shadow Lord trailer sets up a red-skinned Twi’lek who’s being trained as Maul’s apprentice, a former Jedi named Devon Izara who somehow survived Order 66 and is now being taught the Sith Code.

We’d previously been told Star Wars: The Bad Batch served as the end of George Lucas’ legacy. It was the last show directly inspired by Lucas, after all, given he was the one who’d come up with Clone Force 99. It turns out we were premature in making that assessment, though, because Lucasfilm intend to continue honoring Lucas in the best possible way under the new leadership of Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. Maul – Shadow Lord is literally the fulfillment of not one but two abandoned Lucas ideas, making it the perfect continuation of his legacy.

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