It’s a good time to be a Darth Maul fan. Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord, a brand new animated collection from Lucasfilm Animation following the ex-Sith’s journey into rebuilding his prison syndicate on Janix (“a planet untouched by the Empire”), is ready to land on Disney Plus in April. Even higher, Sam Witwer, who elevated Maul from menacing assault canine to Shakespearean villain along with his voice appearing in each The Clone Wars and Rebels, will reprise his position.
However as excited as followers are to get one other style of Maul, some are already specializing in one other attainable character who’s solely appeared up to now within the Star Wars Prolonged Universe (a big assortment of decanonized comics, books, and video games that expanded on the unique six movies generally known as the EU). That character is the fearsome Sith generally known as Darth Talon.
Maul’s quest to rebuild his empire gained’t be simple. As revealed within the teaser trailer for Shadow Lord, he’ll encounter foes like Captain Brander Lawson and Two-Boots from Star Wars: Shadow of Maul, a comic book set to debut in March that can function a prequel to the present. Nevertheless, it’s the looks of a sure Twi’lek that has followers theorizing about Darth Talon.
Within the teaser, we see a pink Twi’lek named Devon Izara preventing off stormtroopers with a lightsaber. She complains about consistently needing to be on the run, and we see scenes of Devon awash in a crimson gentle, with Maul’s shadow protecting her face.
“I supply you a chance,” Maul says.
With these teases within the trailer, and with Devon being a Twi’lek, followers are theorizing that Maul will take her on as his apprentice and form her right into a Sith.
Whereas there have been loads of Sith lords and apprentices within the EU, Darth Talon stays one of many extra memorable. She was initially launched as a villain and apprentice of the Twi’lek Sith Lord Darth Ruyn within the 2006 Star Wars: Legacy comedian collection by author John Ostrander and penciler Jan Duursema. Later, she would turn into an apprentice and one of many “Fingers” of Darth Krayt (aka, the Dragon of the Sith). Nevertheless, it was solely six years after her introduction that she would start to cross paths with Darth Maul.
Lucas initially envisioned a Talon and Maul team-up in a now-scrapped online game. Whereas that didn’t pan out, the creator of Star Wars plotted to make this duo the principle villains of his deliberate Star Wars sequel trilogy. In Lucas’ model of the flicks, an older Maul would turn into the “godfather of crime,” whereas his apprentice Talon would have turn into “the brand new Darth Vader.”
This clearly didn’t work out. Lucas bought Star Wars to Disney in 2012, and the corporate ignored just about all his concepts for the sequels. (The idea for Darth Talon as a Sith apprentice might have subtly influenced Kylo Ren’s character.) Within the years since, followers have continued to surprise and speculate over what Lucas’ model of the sequels would have regarded like.
Picture: Disney
All of this leads us to surprise: Is Shadow Lord an animated model of Lucas’ sequel trilogy? In any case, the brand new collection is created by Dave Filoni, who was not solely hand-picked by Lucas as his apprentice however is now taking on Lucasfilm. In fact, this new present was written and animated lengthy earlier than the information of Filoni’s promotion was official, however it’s nonetheless attainable (even possible) that the Clone Wars director took his inspiration immediately from his outdated grasp.
Nevertheless, it’s clear from Shadow Lord’s trailer that if Devon does find yourself turning into Darth Talon, it will likely be far faraway from Talon’s unique creation. For one factor, Devon seems a lot youthful, with followers speculating she might be an Order 66 survivor. She’s additionally on the run from the Empire, and doesn’t appear too eager on embracing the Darkish facet.
Nevertheless, Jedi turning to the Darkish facet of the Power isn’t something new, and if Filoni is eager to convey Talon into Star Wars canon, the introduction of Devon (somebody weak and searching for steering) could be the right means to take action.
Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord will stream on Disney Plus on April 6.
