Star Wars: Maul's New Apprentice Is A Nod To One Of George Lucas' Best Unused Sequel Trilogy Ideas

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In the two-episode premiere of "Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord," we're introduced to a young Jedi Padawan on the run from the Empire named Devon Izara (voiced by Gideon Adlon). She's a Twi'lek singled out by the former Sith lord Maul (Sam Witwer) for her abilities as he considers taking on an apprentice. As such, many of her scenes cast her in a red light, and the character herself is all too reminiscent of one of George Lucas's best unused ideas for the "Star Wars" sequel movie trilogy to be a coincidence.

Speaking to Paul Duncan, author of "The Star Wars Archives: 1999-2005," Lucas talked extensively about his concepts for the sequel trilogy and how they differed from what Lucasfilm eventually developed after he left the company. And one of the largest differences — at least according to this interview — was that Maul would have served as the trilogy's chief villain. Maul also would have had an apprentice in the form of Darth Talon, a character who originated in Dark Horse's comic books from the no longer canonical "Star Wars" Expanded Universe (which has since been renamed "Star Wars Legends"). There, Maul and Talon united the criminal underworld to oppose Supreme Chancellor Leia Organa's New Republic.

When interviewed by Paul Duncan, George Lucas explained that, in one of the iterations of the sequel trilogy he conceived, the Empire's stormtroopers refused to give up after the Rebel's victory in "Return of the Jedi." Taking cues from the Iraq War, Lucas imagined a nascent version of the First Order and compared the stormtroopers to Saddam Hussein's Ba'athist fighters, who joined ISIS and carried on the fight. As he put it: 

"They want to be stormtroopers forever, so they go to a far corner of the galaxy, start their own country, and their own rebellion. Gangsters like the Hutts are taking advantage of the situation and there's chaos. The key person is Maul, who'd been resurrected in the 'Clone Wars' cartoons, he brings all the gangs together. Maul trained a girl, Darth Talon, who was in the comics, as his apprentice. She was the new Darth Vader, and most of the action was with her. So, these 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."

Continuing, Lucas added that his vision for the sequel trilogy would have seen Leia trying to get the galaxy under control from the aforementioned gangsters. However, it also would have focused heavily on the grandchildren of the original trilogy's heroes (Leia included). "I had planned for the first trilogy to be about the father, the second trilogy to be about the son, and the third trilogy to be about the daughter and the grandchildren," Lucas recalled.

It's easy to look at Maul's arc throughout his various appearances, including the first two episodes of "Shadow Lord" and the introduction of Devon Izara, and feel like newly-appointed Lucasfilm head honcho Dave Filoni is still taking these cues from George Lucas. Indeed, Lucasfilm has continued to repurpose unused ideas that Lucas once came up with since he left the company, mining every bit of material, and "Shadow Lord," in particular, plays like a distillation of Lucas' sequel trilogy premise (albeit compressed into a section of the "Star Wars" timeline where Maul can actually show up and criminals can thrive without breaking the canon).

You can see that elsewhere, too. As mentioned, the First Order sounds a lot like what Lucas had in mind for the stormtroopers and the remnants of the Empire in his version of the sequel trilogy, and that goes double for the trilogy's lead (especially as Rey was ultimately adopted as a Skywalker). Similarly, the "Shadow Lord" trailers show Maul and Devon fighting side-by-side, and it appears as though she's treading a dangerous path, like all Jedi following the downfall of the Old Republic. Meanwhile, Devon's Jedi mentor Eeko-Dio-Daki (Dennis Haysbert) is apparently unwilling to bend to the realities of their situation. That's very similar to the path Master Yoda led Anakin Skywalker down before his fall to the dark side.

Devon might not be Darth Talon, but it certainly feels like she may come awfully close. And the galaxy should watch out; that could be bad for everyone.

The first two episodes of "Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord" are now streaming on Disney+. Additional episodes will drop two at a time weekly until the finale arrives on Monday, May 4.