Lucasfilm released a brand new trailer that shows some of the things we can expect when Maul – Shadow Lord releases on April 6.
In this series, we’ll witness how the former Sith Lord creates a criminal empire during the reign of the Galactic Empire. In case you’re just learning about this series and are not up to date with Maul’s story, I suggest that you read our prep guide for the series.
The hunt for Maul
The trailer begins with Captain Lawson talking about Maul’s criminal profile. The ongoing Shadow of Maul comics series, which ties in with this series, covers Maul’s arrival on Janix and some of his criminal activities on the planet. So it’s likely that Lawson is fully aware of Maul’s danger at the time of the first episode.
Lawson leads law enforcement in Janix. He wants to deal with Maul as fast as possible because Janix is “free” of the Empire’s direct involvement. A dark sider causing chaos would immediately catch their attention and pretty much terminate Janix’s independence.
As we have seen with previous teasers, Lawson will fail, and the Empire will send people after Maul. Luckily for Maul, the soldiers are TK Troopers and not Clone Troopers.
TK Troopers eventually become Stormtroopers, but the most important thing is that these are regular human recruits. A massive downgrade from the experienced Clone Troopers. The fact that we see these soldiers also tells us that this series happens during or after Season 2 of The Bad Batch.
Maul’s new weapon
Despite Maul being eclipsed by Palpatine, Dooku, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and even Ahsoka in terms of power, he’s still an extremely dangerous individual to anyone he considers an enemy. Not only because of his lightsaber abilities, but also because he can recruit others to join his cause. For some, it’s his power that persuades them, and for a few others, it’s his ideals.
Lucasfilm has told us that Maul will try to recruit a young Jedi Padawan named Devon Izara, who happens to live on Janix with Jedi Master Eeko-Dio Daki. Living as a survivor of Order 66 has to be one of the worst things a Jedi can endure. If even Obi-Wan struggled with it, we can’t expect much from a young Padawan.
It’s very likely that Devon is in a vulnerable state of mind, and Maul will take advantage of that. Unfortunately, I also think that this implies that her master will die.
In previous paragraphs, I talked about Maul’s ability to recruit others into his ranks. Even if we don’t consider the potential new apprentice, he still has the backup of the Mandalorian super commandos and his Zabrak brothers.
Both groups are fearsome enemies on their own, with Maul leading them. I don’t think there’s any criminal organization that can truly oppose them, with the exception of the Hutt Cartel.
The trailer shows the forces of the Pyke Syndicate getting obliterated by Maul, which is a perfect summary of the series, “bad guys versus worst guys,” in the words of Sam Witwer.
Was this trailer necessary?
As much as I loved watching some of the scenes from this series, I feel that Star Wars joined the trend of not letting people be surprised. Every time we get a new series, there’s a bunch of trailers revealing a considerable amount of information. By the time the series is out, we already know a lot about it.
I understand that it’s to create hype and draw more people to watch it, but there are some series that aren’t going to be watched by “casual” fans, regardless of the hype. I remember the excitement of Asajj Ventress’ reveal on The Bad Batch Season 3 trailer. Imagine how incredible it would have been if no one knew about it until the actual episode aired.
While this trailer didn’t say some things explicitly, it did show some images that make it very easy to draw some conclusions. For example, seeing Maul and Devon fighting side by side against Marrok.
That didn’t add anything meaningful to the trailer, and even if it’s fairly predictable that both will join forces, I’d still like to see that for the first time when the series is actually out.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m super excited to see this series, I just don’t want half the story spoiled by the time the first episode is out.
