After months of waiting, Maul: Shadow Lord finally premiered its first two episodes Monday, and pushed us into a brand new era of Star Wars animation. Although I was largely disinterested in the show upon its announcement (I was depressed at the time, and even new Star Wars projects weren't exciting me), our first look at the show quickly flipped my opinion and it became my most anticipated show in years.
Maybe that's to be expected though, since I'm a Prequels baby, who has a deep rooted love and connection with the Phantom Menace, since it released the year I was born.
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Me as a baby, kissing Darth Maul's cheek (aka my dad ♡) Without delving too much into spoilers for the first two episodes (though if you haven't watched them yet already, please do because the next two episodes drop tomorrow!), I'll say this is the best Star Wars has been in years, and that's such a highly competitive arena because when isn't Star Wars telling compelling stories? Ahead of the show's release, I went back and rewatched Maul's appearances in the Clone Wars, because I couldn't remember the episodes that well, and the difference in tone between Clone Wars and Shadow Lord is staggering. Although TCW matured as the seasons went on, there is a lightness to the anthology series that feels almost entirely absent in Maul, even with two characters that provide us with a certain amount of comic relief. It approaches the story it wants to tell with patience and nuance, already introducing us to characters with rich backstories and living in shades of grey. The animation is probably the best Lucasfilm has ever done. It has the cinematic feel of the Siege of Mandalore arc in The Clone Wars, but the improvements made on their existing style feels like the animation team watched Arcane and the Spider-Verse films and went "we can do that, too." The way they incorporate an almost watercolor style feeling to the backgrounds (particularly visible in the Janix skylines), reminds me strongly of Gwen's universe in Across the Spider-Verse. And the amount of details gone into the animation is incredible: you can see individual strands of hair on multiple characters' heads, and dust motes in the background of some sequences. It's also violent and leans hard into some horror film elements (which has been promised to get even stronger once the Inquisitors have entered the fray later in the season), and the fight choreography is already amazing, and we're only two episodes in! Not to mention the score - no surprise to anyone, but the Kiners are absolutely knocking it out of the park again, I almost screamed when the first title card splashed across the screen and the show's suite played for the first time (don't even get me started on the Duel of the Fates needle drop). My favorite characters so far are Spybot (a talking, sassy goth cat-like droid? Sign me up), and Devon Izara. Devon's character already stands unique among a slew of other Order 66 survivors, because she's got a more hardened, pragmatic edge to her. She's aware that in order to survive in such a lawless time, morals might have to be compromised - but she's got a good heart on her, too, and I'm interested to see where the rest of the series takes her, though I have quite a few theories on where she might go. I'm also fond of Lawson. The on-the-nose naming technique endears me so much (he's a cop named son of the law! About as subtle as Before the Awakening making Poe's first assignment in the Resistance, being stationed aboard a ship called the Echo of Hope), and he feels like he's been pulled straight of an old detective film - which, despite being a popular character archetype, feels incredibly fresh to Star Wars. He reminds me a little bit of Legend of Korra's Lin Beifong for that reason, although Lawson is far softer than gruff Lin. I don't think I've been this invested in a Star Wars series since Star Wars Rebels, which is still to date one of my favorite entries in the franchise, and if the rest of the season proves to be as good, I might even have a brand new favorite show in general. Thank the maker it's already been renewed for a second second!
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