Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord looks like it’s going to be another badass animated series in the franchise. This is the first Star Wars series built entirely around a villain, and the recently released trailer showed how dark Maul is going to be.
From Maul quoting the Sith Code to openly challenging the power structure of the galaxy, this show isn’t interested in playing it safe.
Set roughly a year after Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, the series finds Darth Maul on the run after surviving Order 66 at the end of Star Wars: The Clone Wars. He’s a wanted man, hunted and broken, but still driven by rage and ambition.
Maul has never been content to hide, and Maul – Shadow Lord makes it clear he’s done waiting. He’s rebuilding, plotting, and preparing to strike back.
That plan appears to involve stepping directly into the shadow of Darth Sidious himself. Maul once tried to challenge Palpatine during the Clone Wars and failed. Now he’s doing it again, this time by reassembling his criminal empire under the banner of Crimson Dawn. The difference is that this time, Maul isn’t alone.
The trailer strongly hints that Maul has taken on a red-skinned Twi’lek Force-sensitive apprentice, and longtime fans immediately recognized the inspiration. The character is clearly modeled after Darth Talon, a fan-favorite Sith assassin from Legends who first appeared exactly 20 years ago.
In the old Expanded Universe, Darth Talon existed a full century after the Skywalker saga during a massive Sith resurgence. The Rule of Two was gone, replaced by an entire order of Sith warriors, and Talon stood out as one of the deadliest among them.
She served as one of the “Emperor’s Hands” for Darth Krayt, combining brutal loyalty with acrobatic lightsaber combat enhanced by the dark side of the Force.
Her striking design and ruthless presence made her an instant standout in Star Wars: Legacy. She famously tried to seduce Luke Skywalker’s descendant Cade into the dark side, acting as both enemy and mentor. Unlike many Sith, Talon never wavered in her devotion, remaining loyal to the One Sith even after Krayt’s death.
George Lucas genuinely loved this character. That detail came straight from Paul Duncan in The Star Wars Archives: 1999–2005, which outlined Lucas’ abandoned plans for a sequel trilogy. In those early concepts, Maul would return as the head of a galaxy-spanning crime syndicate after the Empire’s fall, with Darth Talon as his apprentice. The idea pulled her directly from Legends and paired her with Maul as the central villains.
That version of Talon would’ve been different, shaped by life under the Empire and bound to Maul through the Sith Rule of Two. The trilogy never happened, but the idea lingered, and Talon remained one of the rare Legends characters Lucas personally wanted to bring forward.
Canon eventually sent Maul down a tragic path, ending his story shortly before Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Maul – Shadow Lord takes place well before that finale, giving him room to evolve and, apparently, to train a new apprentice.
That character is named Devon Izara, described as a runaway from the Empire who “must adapt and accept a future far different than the one she expected for herself.” She’s also a former Jedi Padawan, now being pulled into the darkness under Maul’s influence.
Whether Devon ultimately takes the name Darth Talon remains to be seen. The name itself might not matter. The visual design, the role, and the legacy are all there, with a slightly toned-down presentation that fits modern Star Wars sensibilities.
It feels like Lucasfilm is paying respect to one of Lucas’ favorite ideas while finally giving it a place in canon. For fans of Maul, Legends, or Sith lore in general, Maul – Shadow Lord is shaping up to be something awesome.
It isn’t just expanding the dark side. It may be resurrecting a piece of Star Wars history that’s been waiting two decades to step back into the spotlight.
