Review ‘Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord’: uneven but promising
Next month, the “Star Wars” franchise returns to theaters after an astonishing seven-year absence with Jon Favreau’s “The Mandalorian and Grogu,” a spinoff of the director’s hit Disney+ series “The Mandalorian.” The premiere is confirmation of what was already clear to fans: that since 2019 — the year in which both “The Mandalorian” and “The Rise of Skywalker,” the most recent “Star Wars” film, premiered within months of each other — the center of the galaxy has shifted far, far away from the multiplex to our living rooms. While future film projects from the likes of Taika Waititi or the makers of “Game of Thrones” haven’t materialized, Disney+’s roster has continued to grow at a steady pace, from the transcendent (“Andor”), the disappointing (“Obi-Wan Kenobi”) and the innocently entertaining (“Skeleton Crew”).
An interesting side effect of this migration is the elevation of the “Clone Wars” animated series into a supporting pillar of the “Star Wars” canon. Starting with Genndy Tartakovsky’s revered Cartoon Network series, which ran for three seasons starting in 2003 before being rebooted in 2008, “Clone Wars” served as a bridge to the Disney+ era with a final season airing on the service in 2020. (The previous season had ended seven years earlier.) As a result, the barrier between the animated offshoot of “Star Wars” and the flagship has been blurred: “Clone Wars” character Ahsoka Tano now has her own live-action show in which she is played by Rosario Dawson.
The latest “Star Wars” series, the creatively punctuated “Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord,” is further evidence of this convergence. The title character is played by longtime voice actor Sam Witwer, whose menacing accent provides continuity for longtime fans. (Maul was introduced in “The Phantom Menace,” where he was played by Ray Park and voiced by Peter Serafinowicz, but is a staple of “Clone Wars,” which picks up in the same time frame as George Lucas’ prequel trilogy.) But Witwer is surrounded by high-profile costars like recent best actor Oscar nominee Wagner Moura (“The Secret Agent”), comedian Richard Ayoade and “24” stalwart Dennis Haysbert. “Shadow Lord” was even created by Dave Filoni, the franchise’s de facto Kevin Feige figure. Filoni, who co-developed “Shadow Lord” with head writer Matt Michnovetz, returns to his roots here, having screened the post-Tartakovsky version of “Clone Wars” since 2008, but does so after several promotions.
Throughout the eight episodes screened for critics of the final ten, “Shadow Lord” can feel as stranded between tentpole and side-quest as its resume implies. Set on the urban planet Janix in the early days of the Galactic Empire, ‘Shadow Lord’ introduces Maul after ‘Revenge of the Sith’ as a crime lord trying to dominate competing factions of smugglers. Like the former Sith Lord’s cybernetic legs or his origin story hinted at in flashbacks, Maul’s current calling is explained by “Clone Wars” but may be confusing to newcomers who mainly remember the character for his double-sided red lightsaber. Relying on outside knowledge to give certain climactic moments their impact can undermine their intended effect.
But “Shadow Lord” also traffics in “Star Wars” products that retain their age-old power in the popular imagination. In his quest to exact revenge on those who wronged him, Maul sets his sights on Devon (Gideon Adlon, whose mother Pamela also makes an auditory cameo), a Jedi Padawan who became a refugee after the order’s demise. On the run with her pacifist master Eeko-Dio-Daki (Haysbert) — the contrast between his name and Devon’s extremely normal name is classic “Star Wars” material — Devon is somewhat open to the seductive lure of the dark side as Maul tries to recruit her for his own purposes. That temptation has led to some of the best scenes “Star Wars” has to offer, from the push-pull between Rey and Kylo Ren in the most recent film trilogy to Leslye Headland’s underrated, rudely canceled “The Acolyte.” Maul and Devon’s dynamic doesn’t reach those heights yet, but it’s reminiscent enough to keep our interest.
As an animated series, the visual style of “Shadow Lord” has the same ups and downs as the central story. Janix’s ‘Blade Runner’-esque cityscape is fascinating, as are the various lightsaber battles. But the character design can alternate between unappealingly blocky—as with Moura’s police captain Lawson, who tries to do his job without the Empire’s interference—and arresting, like the brush-like effects on Maul’s close-ups. “Shadow Lord” can capably advance the story of “Clone Wars,” but isn’t ready to serve as a standard-bearer for “Star Wars” in its own right. It’s a good time to finally get the theatrical release schedule going again.
The first two episodes of “Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord” are now streaming on Disney+, with the remaining episodes airing in two-episode episodes on Mondays.
