The creators and talent behind the latest Star Wars animated series invite you to join the former Sith Lord on Janix with the two-episode series premiere now on Disney+.
Maul could be described in many ways. A terrifying and agile lightsaber duelist. A menacing creature of the dark side. Add to that relatable and worthy of our sympathy.
With his first starring role in Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, the animated series introduces a new chapter in the former Sith Lord’s story, a few years after his old Master Darth Sidious succeeded in launching the Imperial era. Created by Lucasfilm President and Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni and starring Sam Witwer with snarling precision, Maul – Shadow Lord introduces a new cast of characters struggling to survive in the early days of the Empire.
“I think people feel bad for Maul because he's so relatable,” Filoni tells StarWars.com. “He makes mistakes. He's not perfect. He desires power, and then he gets toppled. That's relatable. You know, we all probably feel like that when we have a low moment. He just doesn't deal with it well. He keeps trying to attack his problems the same way. He can't ever really let go of his hatred and his anger.”
To bring this new era of Maul’s quest for power and revenge into focus, Head Writer Matthew Michnovetz and Supervising Director Brad Rau have assembled a crew of phenomenal newcomers and recognizable Star Wars animation stalwarts to round out the cast.
“We have a dream cast,” Rau tells StarWars.com. “I can't imagine any of these characters being played by anybody else. They're incredible and it starts at the top with Sam Witwer. We've had the greatest time working with him and collaborating with him to keep the character authentic.”
“Despite playing a former Sith Lord, he's kind of like our Jedi Master,” adds Michnovetz. “He knows what he's doing, he knows Star Wars and he's just remarkable. Everybody on the cast is exceptional.”
Read on for more insights from the cast and crew as well as a closer look at the first Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord character posters below.
Sam Witwer - Maul
No longer Darth, now simply Maul. With a nightmarish visage and a devilish demeanor, Maul remains a fan-favorite among the storied Star Wars villains for a number of reasons. The iconic character design was first introduced in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, when most viewers thought Maul had surely perished in a duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Over the years, we’ve witnessed Maul on the edge of insanity in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and consumed by revenge in Star Wars Rebels; in both cases, actor Sam Witwer provided the vocal talents to brilliantly bring the character’s cunning menace to life.
“With Maul, we've seen his beginnings and we have the ending,” Witwer says. “What happened to him in between?”
Set a few years into the creation of the Empire, Maul - Shadow Lord picks up at a time where we can begin to unravel some of that mystery. Witwer notes that this version of Maul is still reeling from the loss of his brother, Savage Opress, and Mother Talzin not so far in the distant past. In this new world order, Maul finds an opening for his machinations within the seedy underbelly of Janix, among the underworld kingpins. “In [Maul - Shadow Lord], he has a crew of very colorful, interesting characters,” Witwer says. “For me, it was the promise that we were going to dig into [Maul] and answer the questions of how he changed so drastically into the Rebels version of the character.”
Witwer brings more than a decade of experience voicing Maul to the role, and the intensity of an actor who has worked with Filoni to explore Maul’s interior life. “I feel like I know this guy pretty well at this point,” Witwer says, using The Lord of the Rings’ Gollum and Sméagol as a touchstone to understanding Maul on an emotional level. “He has the same type of feelings that you and I have, but he doesn't have the tools to express those. All he has in front of him are supervillain tools.”
Lucky for Maul, he has the leadership qualities to keep a small collective loyal to his cause. “He is charismatic, amazingly powerful, and talented,” Filoni adds. “These are all appealing things.”
Add to that a changing galaxy, now under the iron fist of the Empire. “It's shortly after the conclusion of the Clone Wars and he's in a place of reassessment,” Witwer says. “He doesn't know which end is up. It's a time of change in this Star Wars galaxy.”
Gideon Adlon - Devon Izara
It wasn’t long ago that Devon Izara was a Jedi Padawan studying with her Master Eeko-Dio Daki. Now the pair are on the run from the Empire and forced into hiding on the world of Janix. The young Twi’lek is an adept fighter, defending herself with her blue lightsaber when needed. But according to voice actor Gideon Adlon, she’s also dealing with some regular young adult emotions as she struggles to find her footing in this new world order.
“Devon Izara is a Jedi in a post-Order 66 world and she is filled with angst,” Adlon says. “She's a teenage girl living in a world where she's trying to decipher right from wrong.”
Like Maul, her character’s relatability has been resonating with the cast and crew. “Everyone in the room and the [recording] booth has been relating to Devon, which is very special,” Adlon says. “She makes me feel like I'm doing what I should be doing. Because of the things I've been through as a young girl, when I was a teenager, and as a woman, she came very easy to me. I feel like she's like my sister. We're very much a part of each other.”
Rau notes that Adlon was a fast learner. “Gideon is a rising star,” Rau says. “She's really powerful in the role of Devon and the way that she works with all of the different cast members and you see her arc through the season is pretty awesome.”
“When we talk about creating a scene that will match her potential and her talent or skill, it's difficult because she's so talented and so skilled at what she does,” Michnovetz adds. “Maul and Devon is one of the more important relationships in the series and we're excited for fans to see it. This is not going to go the way you think it is.”
Wagner Moura - Brander Lawson
Recent Golden Globe® winner and Oscar® nominee Wagner Moura makes his Star Wars debut as Brander Lawson, a police captain simply trying to keep the citizens of Janix safe.
“Wagner Moura is incredible,” Rau says. “He's the nicest guy. He's so respectful and great to everybody on the crew, but he just brings this mix of gravitas and grounded realism to the character of Brander Lawson that is amazing.”
“We all grew up watching Star Wars films and I was very, very excited to be part of it. And to be honest with you, that was something that for a Brazilian guy was like, you don't ever think that you're going to be part of the Star Wars universe,” Moura says. “I remember when I saw Diego Luna doing Andor, I was like, wow! How important that is in terms of representation. For young Latinos watching these things and going, ‘Oh, we can be part of such an important cultural landmark in pop culture.’”
Showrunners were so impressed by Moura, they gave Lawson more lines of dialogue than originally planned.That helped to delve even deeper into the character, a police officer who is also a single parent.
“The thing that really caught my attention when I read the scripts was the fact that he's dealing with his son [Rylee],” Moura says. “And it's common to many — it’s a thing in my life — how to balance your work and what you do with the attention that you have to give to your family.
“I also like this about this series — they don't spoonfeed you with answers right away about the past of the characters,” he adds. “We don't know his past, where he came from. I see Lawson as kind of a mysterious character. There are things to be discovered about him. [Brander] Lawson is a street-wise detective, a guy who's been a cop for a long time. He doesn't like the Empire at all.”
Richard Ayoade - Two-Boots
Lawson’s partner, Two-Boots, is a by-the-book police droid with a penchant for footwear and a deep affinity for the rules of the law. Portrayed by actor Richard Ayoade, who first entered the Star Wars galaxy as the voice of Q9-0 the mercenary droid from The Mandalorian Season 1, Two-Boots, deeply loyal to Lawson and the public they serve, couldn’t be further from “Zero.”
“Richard is incredible. In the early days, finding the voice of Two-Boots, Matt and I encouraged Richard to just be Richard,” Rau says. “When we talked to him and we're rolling before and afterward, it's like it's Two-Boots the entire time. He is so sneaky and funny! We wanted to create other characters around Lawson to reflect off of his humanity.”
Dennis Haysbert - Master Eeko-Dio Daki
A Jedi Master still trying to follow the teachings of a Jedi Order that no longer exists, Master Eeko-Dio Daki is Devon Izara’s traditional teacher played by Dennis Haysbert. Michnovetz previously worked with Haysbert on 24, but he and Rau were delighted to learn that the actor was also a Star Wars fan. “I've been working with him for a long time and he fits perfectly with Star Wars,” Michnovetz says.
In one of their first meetings with Haysbert and Executive Producer Athena Portillo, Haysbert surprised the filmmakers with his excitement. “We weren't sure how it was going to go. We thought maybe he wants to at least talk to us to tell us no,” Rau says now. “But when we talked to him to see what he thought about Star Wars, he told us, ‘Lady and gentlemen, it is my destiny to play a Jedi Knight.’”
“You get these big actors and you never know if they know anything about Star Wars,” Michnovetz adds. And although fandom isn’t a requirement, “every now and then, you get someone who has watched it. Dennis knew Clone Wars, Rebels, and Bad Batch. It was great!”
Chris Diamantopoulos - Looti Vario
The series includes some familiar characters among Maul’s crew, but in the underworld there are always new faces vying for power. Looti Vario, voiced by Chris Diamantopoulos, is an Aleena crime boss who uses a mech suit to go toe-to-toe with his foes.
“He's an intergalactic shyster,” Diamantopoulos says. “He's like a space cockroach. He plays every side of the field and he's your best friend and he's your worst enemy. And he's one of these characters that provides a perfect level of conflict because he messes with things. He's just this little gnat and he builds himself up. It’s classic overcompensation. If he was on our planet, he'd be a 60-year-old guy with a combover, 4-foot-9 driving a convertible Ferrari. He also allows for a pressure valve in the show.”
Offering levity between his diminutive stature and his fast-talking scheming, Diamantopoulos has added to the character’s mannerisms in the booth. Animators used the actor’s beard stroking in the recording booth as inspiration, now apparent as Vario strokes his gill-like facial features.
“He is super fun to play and it’s great to see him in the context of the show,” Diamantopoulos adds.”I think it's just a great little tic watching him do that. The texture of his little nubby hand on his little fin or his gill. It is terrific. It's such an excellent idiosyncratic behavior.”
David W. Collins - Spybot
Another character serving as some comic relief is Maul’s robotic pet, Spybot, a sinister new droid design voiced by Skywalker Sound’s David W. Collins.
The unique design for the droid is thoughtfully unconventional, with parts that resemble a classic probe droid. “There were a lot of conversations early on about what Spybot was going to be,” Collins recalls. “He's kind of like a berserker, an old video game character that's just loud and obnoxious. I think we described him as a jaguar or panther meets a droid meets a spider. Like a pet, but a big cat.”
Although Spybot’s highly synthesized lines and dialogue evolved through the process, that feline inspiration is evident in the first episode. “There's this moment where Maul is scheming and he starts to pet Spybot. And it's in the script that Spybot purrs,” Rau says.
As Collins and the sound designers worked on mixing the audio for the series, the voice actor kept adding new improvised lines to give Spybot more to say. “He started giving us little things like ‘peekaboo’ and a little ‘knock knock,’” Rau notes. “Because he's also our sound engineer and our mixer on the back end, he would ad-lib several little lines. And so Spybot as we know him didn't really come to be until we got close to the end of the first episode. And if you listen carefully, a lot of those little one-liners help tell the story.”
“I thought a lot about older droids in Star Wars that have been around and were really successful or very funny. Chopper, BB-8, and of course, R2-D2,” Collins says. “I tried all kinds of different accents and what ended up coming out was this almost homage to Peter Lorre and film noir.”
Vanessa Marshall - Rook Kast
Reprising her role from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Vanessa Marshall is back as Rook Kast, a skilled Mandalorian warrior who remains loyal to Maul. Perhaps best known among fans as the voice of Hera Syndulla on Star Wars Rebels, Marshall is just one of many returning names that are undoubtedly familiar to Star Wars animation fans. “We have a greatest hits package on this show of our ringers, returning champions, and our heavy hitters,” Michnovetz says. “I don't want to drop too many names here, but you know who they are.”
Steve Blum - Icarus
Another member of the beloved Ghost crew, voice actor Steve Blum portrays the Zabrak Nightbrother Icarus. Loyal to Maul and his brother, Scorn, Icarus uses his hulking muscle to carry a heavy rotary blaster to mow down his opponents in combat. Blum is best known among fans as the voice of Lasat warrior Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, first appearing in Star Wars Rebels and most recently in The Mandalorian Disney+ series and soon The Mandalorian and Grogu feature film.
A.J. LoCascio - Marrok
The First Brother Inquisitor Marrok returns, voiced by A.J. LoCascio. Among his many voice roles, LoCascio has previously entered the LEGO Star Wars galaxy, primarily voicing different brick incarnations of Han Solo. The character has previously appeared in Ahsoka and Star Wars: Tales of the Empire.
Charlie Bushnell - Rylee Lawson
Actor Charlie Bushnell, who voices Rylee Lawson, is also a fan. Having grown up watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars, it was the clone soldiers that became some of Bushnell’s favorite characters.
“I've seen all the movies, but the animated show, that was for sure my main thing growing up,” Bushnell says. “As a kid, I felt like everyone wanted to be a Jedi, which there’s nothing wrong with that. Jedi are awesome! But I always had this obsession with the clones for some reason. I always wanted to be a clone.
“I grew up in a neighborhood with a lot of kids and we had this club. I remember I used to pretend to be a clone when we'd have Nerf battles. I was a massive, massive Star Wars fan growing up, so to be a part of this now, it's truly unreal to me.”
But unlike Bushnell’s beloved clones, Rylee Lawson is one of a kind — your average teenager who enjoys space pizza and playing botekin with his friends. “He goes to school, he's athletic, and he's smart. He's got a good heart,” Bushnell says. “His dad is definitely a bit of a workaholic, and he's not really around a lot of the time. Rylee is alone a lot and has to sort of look after himself.”
Pamela Adlon - Rheena Sul
Star Wars newcomer and veteran voice actor Pamela Adlon was working out of the same studio in Los Angeles when she was pregnant with her daughter Gideon Adlon. Now, mother and daughter are working together on Maul – Shadow Lord.
The elder Adlon voices Rheena Sul, a Janix business woman with ties to the underworld and Captain Brander Lawson alike. “Rheena Sul is a casino owner who dabbles in the underworld, but she's for the side of the good,” Adlon says. “She's extremely strong and resilient and she thinks outside the box, but she cannot get herself to a safe place. She's stuck, but she gives help where she can. And she has a relationship with Brander Lawson that I am not going to comment about.”
Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord presents fans with a pulpy adventure that finds Maul plotting to rebuild his criminal syndicate on a planet untouched by the Empire. There, he crosses paths with a disillusioned young Jedi Padawan who may just be the apprentice he is seeking to aid him in his relentless pursuit for revenge.
The cast includes Sam Witwer as Maul, Gideon Adlon as Devon Izara, recent Golden Globe® winner and Oscar® nominee Wagner Moura as Brander Lawson, Richard Ayoade as Two-Boots, Dennis Haysbert as Master Eeko-Dio Daki, Chris Diamantopoulos as Looti Vario, Charlie Bushnell as Rylee Lawson, Vanessa Marshall as Rook Kast, David W. Collins as Spybot, A.J. LoCascio as Marrok, and Steve Blum as Icarus.
Created by Dave Filoni, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord is based on Star Wars and characters created by George Lucas. The series is developed by Dave Filoni and Matt Michnovetz. Brad Rau is supervising director. The executive producers are Dave Filoni, Athena Yvette Portillo, Matt Michnovetz, Brad Rau, Carrie Beck, and Josh Rimes. Alex Spotswood is the co-executive producer.
Watch the latest trailer and get ready. The age of Maul begins with new episodes in the series premiering weekly at 12 a.m. PT Mondays on Disney+ with the finale episodes at 12 a.m. local time on May the 4th, Star Wars Day.
