Star Wars’ New Order 66 Survivor Changes Darth Maul’s Failed Jedi Story, 10 Years Later

Star Wars is continuing its ongoing saga, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, the latest animated series from Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni. Set during the early days of the Imperial era, following the Clone Wars and Order 66, where Maul (Sam Witwer) is secretly trying to rebuild the underworld empire he lost, when Mandalorians, Republic clone soldiers, and Ahsoka Tano all united to oust Maul from his seat of power on Mandalore. As the premiere episodes revealed, Maul’s mission takes a slight detour when he meets Devon Izara (Gideon Adlon).

A young Twi’lek Jedi who is in hiding along with her master, Eeko-Dio-Daki (Dennis Haysbert), Devon ends up being taken by Maul and his syndicate after crossing paths during a jailbreak. However, as Shadow Lord Episodes 3 and 4 premiere on Disney+, it’s looking more and more like Devon’s arc could help explain where Maul’s arc takes him after this series, and why.

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Maul – Shadow Lord Episodes 3 & 4 Recap (SPOILERS)

In “Chapter 3: Whispers of the Unknown”, Maul begins working on Devon to turn to the dark side in an all too familiar way. He convinces her to access her own power (escaping her holding cell) and then poises himself as a mentor and teacher, calmly shrugging off insult and aggression while offering a ‘different perspective’ for her consideration. He sets the groundwork for Devon to realize that Sidious hurt Maul just as badly as he did the Jedi Order. Throughout Episode 3, Devon tries to escape Maul’s hideout, as the villain tries to seduce her into becoming his apprentice with skewed perspective, hiding in the shadows like a horror movie monster. Eventually, Maul pushes Devon into a duel, with Devon wielding one of Maul’s lightsabers against him. Maul takes back his saber but lets Devon escape. And then the real “training” begins.

In Episode 4, Maul spreads his vile influence even further: he manipulates police detective Brander Lawson (Wagner Moura) into a private meeting, offering to keep the Empire off of Planet Janix in exchange for turning a blind eye to his criminal activities. The attempted bribery fails, and a fight between cops and crooks breaks out. Devon brings Master Daki to the battle, but it’s exactly what Maul wants: to discredit her master’s teachings, before removing him for good. Maul overpowers both Jedi, nearly killing Daki, until Devon throws herself in the way to protect her master. Maul lets them live, but remarks how lucky Daki is to have such a good apprentice.

Is Shadow Lord The Story of Maul’s First Apprentice?

Devon Izara is a major “X” factor in the Star Wars timeline, right now. The character is making her debut in Maul – Shadow Lord, and she is a rare Star Wars character who is unrestrained by all the canon that comes after the series. We don’t have any record of Devon during the Galactic Civil War (that we know of), but she is just a teenager in the early Imperial Era, meaning she would’ve been a middle-aged adult by the time of the New Republic, and an elderly woman by the time of the Second Galactic Civil War. That is very fertile ground for any new Star Wars character to get a lengthy run in the franchise.

The two questions are: does Devon Izara live past the events of Maul – Shadow Lord, and if so, which side of the Force does she ultimately land on?

We already know that Shadow Lord has renewed for Season 2 on Disney+, which could be more telling than the Filoni and Co. want it to be. It hints that the next season could be about Maul actually training Devon in the ways of the dark side, if Season 1 ends on the twist of her turning away from the light. It would be a tweak on the story arc from the hit video game Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (whose main character was played by Sim Witwer, ironically enough), which is something that Star Wars fans have longed to see play out on the screen. It would also be one of the more compelling Star Wars projects we’ve gotten in a while (and what many wanted a show like The Acolyte to be).

Shadow Lord‘s Ending Leads to A Key Rebels Story Arc

We don’t know all the finer details about how Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord will end its run, just the basic framework: Maul rebuilds his criminal syndicate through groups like Crimson Dawn, and rules the underworld until the early days of the Rebellion when he is killed by Obi-Wan Kenobi in a final duel on Tatooine. Along the way, however, Maul makes yet another pointed detour to recruit a new apprentice.

In Star Wars Rebels, Ezra Bridger was one of the founding members of the Spectres rebel cell, one of the first groups that helped create the early framework for what would become the Rebel Alliance. Ezra was a Force user of considerable power, with a streak of darkness that Maul honed in on immediately and tried to nurture. Luckily, Ezra’s master, Kanan Jarrus, and mentors like Ahsoka Tano were there to keep Maul from turning Ezra – but it was a close call.

Shadow Lord is doing some key backfill to show us how Maul began to focus on the goal of recruiting an apprentice for himself, and how it resulted in one of two likely outcomes: Either he managed to turn his first acolyte and train her (with her later fate to be determined), or Devon escapes Maul’s shadow, forcing him to try again with Ezra, years later.

Star Wars: Maul -Shadow Lord is now streaming on Disney+. Discuss the show with us on the ComicBook Forum!