18 Years Later, Star Wars Has Basically Rebooted a Dark George Lucas Concept
If you've slept on the various Star Wars animated TV shows over the years, it's time to jump back into that faraway galaxy. Disney+ is now streaming a new animated Star Wars series, Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord, which, as you might guess, chronicles the exploits of that infamous, devilish former Sith Lord, Darth Maul. But what you might not expect is that this new show isn't really a space fantasy full of prophecies and crashing laser swords, but instead, a hard-boiled crime thriller that just happens to be set in the Star Wars galaxy.
For those keeping track, Shadow Lord takes place in an odd liminal space in the Star Wars timeline; just after the end of The Clone Wars, but before the rise of the Rebellion. So, this is a moment when the Empire is a relatively new government, and various aspects of society are in chaos. Hardcore fans might remember that in The Clone Wars series, and later, at the end of the movie Solo: A Star Wars Story, Darth Maul returned from his apparent death in The Phantom Menace, dropped the "Darth" title from his name, and became, essentially, a crime boss. Shadow Lord, like DC's live-action series The Penguin, finds Maul navigating a criminal empire in the underbelly of the galaxy, while cops and other crime bosses try to figure out what he's all about. Yes, he still uses that famous red lightsaber, but he wields it more the way Tony Soprano might wield a hammer — this is not an elegant weapon, and this is not a more civilized time.
Unlike shows like The Bad Batch, Rebels, or The Clone Wars, the tone and content of Shadow Lord make it the first continuous animated Star Wars show that seems very much not for kids. While aspects of the animated anthology show Star Wars: Visions certainly had hardcore elements, most of those were self-contained stories, which also, in a sense, don't take place in the primary continuity of the larger saga. Shadow Lord, on the other hand, does, and seems closer to the tone of the beloved live-action series Andor than any of its animated antecedents.
And what makes all of this so interesting is that back in 2007, until almost 2010, well before Lucasfilm was part of Disney, George Lucas himself was developing a TV series with a vibe very, very close to what Shadow Lord is delivering. Though never filmed, in the late aughts, George Lucas commissioned several writers—including Ronald D. Moore—to write several scripts for a series called Star Wars: Underworld. The show would chronicle the criminal element within the Star Wars universe in the early days of the Empire.
This is basically exactly what Shadow Lord is doing; though, instead of featuring Darth Vader as an occasional character, the show is focused on Maul, and the building of his criminal syndicate, which will be in full swing by the events of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Essentially, Shadow Lord is, in its dark spirit, similar to a show that Lucas wanted to make in live-action, but couldn't.
The flavor and tone of Shadow Lord is perhaps not for every single kind of Star Wars fan, but the tension is 100 percent mafia thriller. If you ever thought a crime show could use more blasters and lightsabers, this is the show for you.