The new trailer for Maul: Shadow Lord is out, making history for the Star Wars franchise. Even George Lucas knew he’d made a mistake killing Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace, and he eventually brought the Sith Apprentice back in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Now, a full 27 years after his debut, Darth Maul is set to star in his own TV series. Maul: Shadow Lord is set during the Dark Times of the Empire’s reign, and it will see Darth Maul re-establish a criminal empire and even choose an apprentice.
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Lucasfilm has now released the first official trailer for Maul: Shadow Lord, promising an action-packed deep dive into the Star Wars underworld that will begin on April 6, 2026, with two episodes a week leading to a finale on Star Wars Day, May the 4th. Even more excitingly, it offers our first glimpse of Devon Izara, a red-skinned Twi’lek Force-sensitive who’s clearly morphing into Darth Talon. This Legends character was created as part of the old Star Wars Expanded Universe and envisioned as Maul’s apprentice by George Lucas himself.
Darth Talon Has Finally Made Her Way Into Star Wars Canon
A ferocious Sith assassin, Darth Talon was originally created as part of the iconic Star Wars: Legacy comic book series, set a century after the Skywalker saga. Talon was one of the most visually arresting characters in the story, her body covered in tattoos earned from ritual combat. George Lucas reportedly loved the design of Darth Talon, and she was considered as part of Lucas’ planned Star Wars sequel trilogy; he intended to tell a tale in which Maul returned with an apprentice as a crime lord, and needed to be defeated by Luke and Leia.
Naturally, the story we’re getting is rather different to that. Maul: Shadow Lord is set during the Dark Times rather than after the original trilogy, reflecting the fact Maul ultimately died (for real) in Star Wars Rebels as far as canon is concerned. The change is an exciting one, though, because it essentially pits Darth Maul and Darth Talon as rivals for Palpatine and Darth Vader, a second strand of the Sith whose mere existence serves as a challenge for the Sith Rule of Two. It does, however, mean that Darth Talon is in a very dangerous place; there’s no hint of here in Rebels, which suggests she’ll meet an unfortunate end – perhaps at the hands of Darth Vader himself.
The design of Darth Talon has also changed quite a bit, which is for the best; the comic book version was over-sexualized, and is heavily criticized for representing poor handling of the Twi’leks as a race. Modern Star Wars has worked hard to treat the Twi’leks as far more than sex objects, and it’s gratifying to see Devon Izara reinvented to continue this trend. It’s going to be exciting to see how she plays into Maul: Shadow Lord.
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