How the new animated series about Maul is pulling the Star Wars universe out of stagnation

Animated Star Wars projects in recent years have rarely evoked strong emotions, since the franchise has long been accustomed to moving along the safest and most proven tracks. For years we have been fed regular stories about clones or frankly filler stories about rebels, which is why it has become downright boring to follow the announcements. Yes, there is a wonderful “Andor”, but this is rather an exception. I also didn’t expect any revelations from the solo album about Maul - I had a strong feeling that Dave Filoni had already dismantled this character into pieces in previous shows.

In fact, we got a dense, heavy and truly stylish story. The authors managed to make a movie that doesn’t try to sell you merch at all, offering instead an adult drama with a noticeable flavor of despair. Next, I’ll tell you why the return of the tattooed Zabrak to the screens turned out to be such a good move and how exactly the series works with the classic lore of a galaxy far, far away

Dirty work and the galaxy after Order 66

The setting draws out a good half of the atmosphere, because we are accustomed to perceive Order 66 as a short dramatic cut to sad music. Here we are thrown, without warning, into events unfolding exactly one year after the fall of the Republic.

The Empire is just beginning to build its sterile bureaucratic machine and reach out to outlying worlds like the planet Janix, so local power is still based solely on chaos and primitive fear. The surviving Jedi no longer resemble noble knights, since after a year of continuous persecution they have finally turned into broken and cornered outcasts. Due to constant stress, many of them have lost contact with the Force, and now they are forced to hide in dirty slums in search of food, nervously shying away from every sound.

It is into this hopeless mud that Mol descends.The authors decided to move towards classic noir, making the story neon and rainy. In such gloomy settings, the protagonist looks as organic as possible. He despises the Jedi with all his heart, but he hates Emperor Palpatine many times more. The former Sith no longer has allies, and all his actions are dictated solely by the animal instinct of survival and a manic desire to revive his crime syndicate. Such an anti-hero, whose morality has long been erased, is damn interesting to watch.

Matt Michowet, one of the writers and producers of the animated series, said that the project is inspired by The Godfather, Heat and The Dark Knight.

“This is a noir in a boulevard style; the show has elements of detective procedural and gangster cinema."

Legends versus canon: why Maul is no longer a killing machine

It's fun to evaluate the evolution of this character over time. In the old Expanded Universe, which Disney now calls "Legends," the character lived a very eventful life in the pages of all sorts of novels. If you've ever read Michael Reeves' Dark Avenger or Joe Schreiber's brutal Quarantine, you probably remember that classic Maul. In the books, he acted as an ideal terminator and a real chain dog who never asked unnecessary questions, preferring to solve any problems by cutting off limbs.

In the new series, the image was finally reassembled, turning the on-screen Maul into a deeply traumatized character with a split psyche. All his ostentatious bravado and uncontrolled aggression only mask the total vulnerability of a guy who was deprived of the right to choose in early childhood.At the same time, Maul clears locations without the unnecessary theatrical pathos inherent in the Sith, and his methods are more reminiscent of the cold calculation of some Punisher.

Primal Sword Fighting Fury

A frequent and very annoying problem with Disney projects lies in the sterile choreography, when the actors often just carefully hit each other with glow sticks. The animators of the solo film about Maul solved this problem completely, making the local combat difficult and incredibly sticky.

This is especially striking when watching the final two episodes, where the weight of each blow and the inertia of the body are naturally felt through the screen. The authors did not focus on fencing alone, although Ray Park's signature movements are instantly recognizable, and allowed Maul to regularly turn fights into a hard clinch.

At times, the Zabrak acts like a cornered predator, simply crushing its opponents with methodical physical pressure and brute force at close range. He literally breaks someone else's rhythm, leaving the enemy not a single second to rest. It looks so fresh and believable for the Star Wars universe that you want to watch the action scenes several times for the pleasure of seeing the smallest details.

Shadow of Vader and an unexpected gift from localizers

Fan service is present here, but the creators wove it in very carefully, showing Darth Vader exclusively through visual terror. In the original soundtrack, he doesn't say a single word, and the directors were extremely smart to make it clear that a real monster doesn't need lines, just like in Rogue One.His presence is felt only through heavy mechanical breathing and silent, overwhelming pressure in the frame.

However, in the Russian-language segment the situation is completely different. The unofficial dubbing studio Flarrow Films localized the series and specially invited Vladimir Antonik, the same canonical and familiar voice of Anakin Skywalker in armor. They wrote full-fledged text lines for him instead of the original frightening silence, and this decision turned out to be incredibly bold.

Purists and defenders of the director's vision will absolutely be unhappy with such a gag, but it sounds really cool. This is a rare case when localizers hit the nostalgia of the community. And the most important thing is that the studio released an alternative track without these phrases for viewers who want to watch the series in its original original idea, which can safely be called an ideal compromise.

Ripped voice and Easter eggs for your own

Sam Witwer, who voiced Maul in the original, lost his voice during the recording of the final episodes, which the sound engineers talked about in an interview. You can really hear this in the series itself, as the nervousness of a cornered and desperate Zabrak is constantly evident in the dialogue. If you watch the show in dub, I strongly advise you to switch to the original at least in the last episodes in order to appreciate this crazy performance.

As for the pleasant Easter eggs, I would like to mention the old mural of the Zabraks, which briefly appears in the background in one of the scenes. This is early concept art by artist Ian McCaig, drawn by him back in 1998 for the first episode of the saga.McCaig then literally transferred his own nightmares to paper, and the authors turned out to be a very beautiful nod to the origins of creating the appearance of the iconic antagonist

Watch or skip

The bottom line is that we have an animated series that is not at all afraid of being uncomfortable, although its script cannot be called ideal. The middle of the season is a little sluggish in places, and a couple of episodes could have been painlessly shortened, since they feel like classic fillers to stretch out time. But the whirlwind staging of battles, high-quality animation and a gloomy finale that gives you goosebumps easily overcome any rough edges in the plot.

George Lucas's original idea of resurrecting a character cut in half with nothing but cybernetic legs and pure hatred seemed outright nonsense to many fans. "Lord of Shadows" proves that with the right approach of screenwriters, great drama can be squeezed out of this concept.

If you're completely tired of sterile stories and the omnipresent Grogu, just give Maul a chance, because this is a brutal and timely reminder of what the dark side of the Force should really look like.