The New Darth Maul Show Could Introduce A Villain From George Lucas' Canceled Star Wars Plans

The "Star Wars" prequel trilogy may still be viewed by many fans as a mixed bag, but when George Lucas managed to conjure up the old magic of 1977, we remembered why we cared so much about this universe in the first place. And one character he absolutely nailed in the much-debated "Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace" was the Sith Lord Darth Maul.

Portrayed by Ray Park, the character combined the frightening power of Darth Vader with the acrobatic martial arts skills of Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan. Most importantly, with his red-and-black facial markings and those menacing red-yellow eyes, he just looked freaking cool. You wanted his action figure and very possibly had plans to strut around as this ultra bad-dude on Halloween.

Alas, fans were also pretty peeved when Lucas rather definitively killed off Darth Maul at the end of the movie, which made the promise of further adventures with this awesome new character seem highly unlikely. Obviously, people come back to life in "Star Wars" all the time (sometimes in the most ridiculous of ways), but Lucas stuck to his guns and kept Maul out of the other prequel movies — because he had big plans for the character in the sequel trilogy he never made.

Had all gone according to plan for Lucas, a cybernetic Darth Maul would've been the main antagonist in his "Star Wars" sequel trilogy. He also had plans to lean heavily on a new, female baddie, who would've served as Maul's second in command. When Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney, however, all of these ideas were scrapped. Now, though, it appears that Maul and this largely unused character are finally ready for their animated close-up.

At this month's Star Wars Celebration Japan, fans learned that the animated series "Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord." is currently in production for a 2026 debut on Disney+. This will mark the very powerful Maul's latest appearance in animated form after his previous ones in shows like "The Clone Wars" and "Star Wars Rebels." Not only that, but it seems he may be joined by the One Sith Twi'lek Talon.

Hardcore "Star Wars" fans will be familiar with Talon from the "Star Wars: Legacy" comic book, in which the tattooed badass is trained by Darth Krayt and Darth Ruyn and wrecks shop with Maul-like abandon. Though nothing official has been announced just yet, the footage shown at Celebration indicated that Maul will have a Twi'lek cohort. If you're going there, why would you not use Talon, who was supposed to be in the canceled "Battle of the Sith Lords" video game (as well as those sequel trilogy movies we never got to see)?

This reveal now has "Star Wars" fans speculating that Lucasfilm could begin working in elements of Lucas' untold stories, which is certainly intriguing. Maybe George knew what he was doing all along. We'll have to wait until next year to see if Talon's long-time-coming animated debut was worth the wait.

"Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord" will begin streaming in 2026.