Where Star Wars’ Darth Maul TV Show Fits Into the Timeline (& It’s Not Where You Think)

It’s actually surprisingly easy to figure out where Star Wars’ Maul – Shadow Lord TV series fits into the timeline. Casual viewers may be somewhat taken aback to realize Darth Maul didn’t actually die at the end of The Phantom Menace. George Lucas brought him back in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and he lived through most of the Empire’s reign – only dying in the phenomenal Star Wars Rebels episode “Twin Suns,” set shortly before A New Hope.

Maul – Shadow Lord is set sometime after the events of Revenge of the Sith, although Lucasfilm has been deliberately vague about the show’s exact placement. That said, it’s actually possible to figure it out – albeit not from the first two episodes. Rather, the trailers give the game away, and they position it surprisingly close to the Star Wars prequel trilogy.

Maul – Shadow Lord Is Set Roughly a Year After Revenge of the Sith

According to Lucasfilm, Maul – Shadow Lord “will incorporate the burgeoning Empire in the period a few short years after Order 66.” That said, it’s possible to be a lot more precise thanks to other Star Wars shows set during the same time period. The Bad Batch, for example, introduced Project War-Mantle – the Imperial project that replaced clone troopers with stormtroopers. The Shadow Lord trailers have confirmed the show features stormtroopers, so it’s after Project War-Mantle has begun.

Project War-Mantle started in the first year after Revenge of the Sith. Surprisingly, though, another detail establishes something of an end-point for the Maul show as well. Trailers have shown Darth Maul taking on two of Darth Vader’s Inquisitors. One, Marrok, is the Inquisitor destined to be resurrected by Morgan Elsbeth in the Ahsoka Disney+ TV show; the other is an Inquisitor who will die in battle against Ahsoka in Tales of the Jedi. Presumably this Inquisitor survives Maul, but soon finds himself up against an even more dangerous foe.

This particular Inquisitor is rather controversial, because Star Wars has (so far) been unable to decide whether he is the Sixth or Eleventh Brother. Whatever the case may be, the encounter with Ahsoka is dated in the official Star Wars Timelines book. It happens roughly a year after Order 66, and it results in Ahsoka deciding to return to action and join the nascent rebellion as a Fulcrum agent. We can safely say, then, that Maul – Shadow Lord Season 1 is set some months after Revenge of the Sith, but no later than a year.

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