Can you imagine a world without the Star Wars sequel trilogy? Creator George Lucas could, which is why he declared soon after 2005’s “Revenge of the Sith” that Lucasfilm would be focusing on TV instead. But with the long-in-development Star Wars Underworld years away, many were wondering if it really was the end of seeing Star Wars on the big screen.
In a surprise move that ultimately scuppered Lucas’ vision for the franchise, Disney would buy Lucasfilm in 2012, and a whole new sequel trilogy was created instead. Retrospective reactions to these are still mixed, especially “Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker” thanks to its uneven plot points, disappointing ending to the saga, and the iconically bad line, “Somehow, Palpatine returned.” To say the Skywalker Saga on a disappointing note would be an understatement.
But before the House of Mouse took the reins, Lucas revealed in The Star Wars Archives that he had been working on a new sequel trilogy of his own. Some interesting plot points have leaked since this revelation, but the most surprising one was of Darth Maul being the big bad throughout these movies. Having been ‘killed’ by Obi-Wan in Star Wars: Episode I, then revived in the Clone Wars animated series as a spider, the exiled Sith has seen it all, and then some.
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He’s also appearing in a new animated series airing on Disney+ in April, called “Maul: Shadow Lord“. Set a year after the “Clone Wars” ending, the show will see him build up his criminal empire while trying to find and train an apprentice.
Seeing red
Details are still scarce, but Lucas’ idea for his Sequel Trilogy would rediscover Maul as a Crime Boss, based in Coruscant, along with his apprentice, Darth Talon.
In a book called The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005, Lucas outlined his vision for how Maul would work in the movies. “VII, VIII, and IX would take ideas from what happened after the Iraq War. Stormtroopers would refuse to give up when the Republic won after VI. They want to be Stormtroopers forever, so they go to a far corner of the galaxy, start their own country, and their own rebellion.”
Lucas continues, explaining how Maul and others would take advantage of this power vacuum. “Gangsters, like the Hutts, are taking advantage of the situation, and there is chaos. The key person is Darth Maul, who had been resurrected in the animated Clone Wars series – he brings all the gangs together.”
“Darth Maul trained a girl called Darth Talon, who was in the comic books, as his apprentice. She was the new Darth Vader, and most of the action was with her. So they were the two main villains of the trilogy. Maul eventually becomes the godfather of crime in the universe because, as the Empire falls, he takes over.”
It’s an interesting concept, as Lucas’ vision potentially shows another side of the Star Wars universe that was never seen in-depth, especially with the Underworld TV Series being put on hiatus around 2009.
Lucas also disclosed that Luke would be training a new generation of Jedi, whilst Episodes VIII and IX would reveal Leia to be the Chosen One, eventually leading the New Republic as Supreme Chancellor. This part isn’t a million parsecs away from where the actual sequel trilogy ended up, and while Lucas’ ideas for a trilogy would have been an interesting watch, we don’t think Maul would have worked as the central villain.
A Mauling?
Maul is one of the most iconic (and coolest) villains in Star Wars history, so why are we poo-pooing the idea of him as the primary antagonist? His stint in the Clone Wars animated series, for one thing.
Don’t get us wrong, his arc across the series is phenomenal. Maul’s return in Season 3 of Clone Wars in 2011, by being revived by witches called Nightsisters on Dathomir, was well-received by fans. Voiced by Sam Witwer, who has an impressive understanding of the Star Wars universe, Maul is thoroughly insane upon his revival, and this thread of madness carries through to where we last saw him, in the final episodes of Clone Wars.
He’s broken, rageful, calculating — all attributes that make sense for his arc here — but he never gives off the main villain energy required to carry three movies. Ultimately, Maul works for himself, and his attempts to take control of the galaxy with his brother Savage, blew up in his face. It felt more like a tragic soap opera than everything proceeding as foreseen. He was given new depth in the Clone Wars, but it was rooted in hate towards Obi-Wan, rather than a connection to the Skywalker legacy.
There’s also the issue of homework; a lot of Star Wars fans simply have no interest in watching the animated series and other spinoffs required to keep up with Maul’s character arc. To them, the last time they saw Maul was watching his bifurcated body tumbling into oblivion at the end of Episode 1.
Even with his cameo at the end of “Solo”, asking audiences to accept his silver screen return, complete with his fleshy legs back in place, would have been as ridiculous as expecting them to buy Palpatine returning… somehow.
Watch On
Look at the Scarlet Witch debacle in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. To understand 2022’s Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness, you had to watch 2020’s WandaVision TV show to find out why she was crossing many universes to find her children. This spiraling interconnected web of plotlines had been the downfall of the MCU post-Endgame, and it’s not a strategy Star Wars should be repeating. And yes, we say this while giving some serious side-eye to The Mandalorian and Grogu, the upcoming Star Wars movie that requires you to watch several Disney+ shows to know the plot going on.
Sustaining the attention of viewers is harder than ever in 2026. They want to sit down and watch something without feeling required to absorb other content to understand some context.
Beyond all that, though, Maul’s canon ending is perfect in the “Star Wars: Rebels” episode Twin Suns. Set five years before “Episode IV: A New Hope”, the episode sees Maul finally get his showdown with an older Obi-Wan.
Maul’s story didn’t need to carry on in a Sequel Trilogy, for the sake of a narrative rhyme; it wouldn’t have worked. His place is in the shadows, an angry ex-Sith, finding his place in the world, his path winding, until it took him right back to where we first saw him, in a deadly battle against a Jedi Master.
The Disney sequel trilogy was an admittedly mixed affair, and the disappointment of Episode IX can’t be overstated, but the story of the mainline Star Wars movies is about the Skywalker family, and not the rogues’ gallery they encountered along the way.
With any luck, this is what we’ll see when the show drops next month, and that’s the right move. As Maul himself once said, “Every choice you have made has led you to this moment.”
We look forward to seeing the choices he made that led him to that fateful night on Tatooine when “Maul: Shadow Lord” releases on Disney+ in April.
