The announcement of Maul: Shadow Lord proves above all else that his death in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace was a mistake, marking the fourth resurrection for the character. Star Wars’ new Maul: Shadow Lord show was announced in April 2025 and is currently set to be released on Disney+ at an unspecified point in 2026. This announcement came at one of Star Wars Celebration 2025’s many panels which celebrated 20 years of Lucasfilm Animation, reviving Maul once again in the franchise.
Interestingly, even George Lucas knew he made a mistake with Maul. Since the release of Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 1999, Lucas has been outspoken about his regret over deciding to kill Maul, leading the Star Wars creator to toy with the idea of bringing him back in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Lucas’ Star Wars sequel plans then hugely included Maul, yet Disney’s trilogy went in another direction. Overall, it is clear Maul’s original death was a mistake, proven beyond all doubt by the character’s four Star Wars resurrections.
Darth Maul’s Clone Wars Resurrection Explained
The First Of Many
The first of four Maul resurrections in Star Wars came in The Clone Wars. The show was crafted by Lucas alongside Dave Filoni, with the former insisting that Maul be brought back from the ᴅᴇᴀᴅ over a decade after Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace. In 2011, the season 4 episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars тιтled “Witches of the Mist” first revealed that Maul was still alive after being bisected by Obi-Wan Kenobi on Naboo. Maul’s long-lost brother, Savage Opress, was introduced in this arc of The Clone Wars’ timeline.
The leader of the Nightsisters, Mother Talzin, instructed Savage to find Maul and be trained in the ways of the dark side. Maul was found by Savage Opress in the Outer Rim, driven completely insane with little remnants of idenтιтy or memory. The only thing Maul remembered was a lust for revenge against the Jedi. This need for revenge – and the anger, pain, and suffering it brought Maul – was revealed to have kept him alive since The Phantom Menace, with Maul finding cybernetic leg enhancements on the planet of Lotho Minor.
Opress then took Maul back to Dathomir, allowing Mother Talzin to use her magik to restore the latter’s mind. After Maul’s memories, mind, and sense of idenтιтy were renewed, he set out across the galaxy with the sole purpose of getting revenge against Kenobi. This led to several Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul duels across the Clone Wars era of Star Wars. In the final moments of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Maul was shown escaping Order 66.
Darth Maul Returned In Star Wars Rebels
Several Years After His Clone Wars Resurrection
The second “resurrection” of Maul in Star Wars came in Star Wars Rebels, the spiritual sequel to Star Wars: The Clone Wars. After Maul’s ending in the latter show – which, at the time of Rebels‘ premiere in 2014, was more ambiguous as season 7 had not yet been released – many were uncertain what the future held for the character. That was until 2016 with the release of Star Wars Rebels‘ season 2 finale, “Twilight of the Apprentice.” This episode saw the Jedi of the Star Wars Rebels crew, Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger, travel to the Sith planet of Malachor.
The hermit is revealed as Maul, who wished to find a Sith holocron to take down Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine, whom he realized was the source of his decades-long pain…
Alongside Ahsoka Tano, the duo sought a way to defeat the Empire and the many Inquisitors of Star Wars. During this episode, Ezra was separated from his friends, encountering a hooded hermit who insisted they sought the same thing: a way to defeat their enemies. Eventually, the hermit is revealed as Maul, who wished to find a Sith holocron to take down Darth Sidious/Emperor Palpatine, whom he realized was the source of his decades-long pain and suffering.
The reason as to why this reveal in Star Wars Rebels can be classed as a resurrection of the character is the sheer lack of storytelling involving him at the time. This episode of Star Wars Rebels aired in 2016, marking the first appearance of Maul since Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 5, episode 16, “The Lawless.” The latter ended with Maul’s crime syndicate operation being destroyed by Darth Sidious, leading the dark side master to imprison his former apprentice after a lengthy duel.
After the cancellation of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, only the comic book тιтled Son of Dathomir revealed what became of Maul after that, but even this story left-off before the Clone Wars concluded. As such, there was an over 15-year gap in-universe for Maul’s story, with these events shrouded in mystery. No one suspected the character would be seen again, meaning Maul’s appearance in Star Wars Rebels‘ season 2 finale was nothing short of a second miraculous resurrection for the fan-favorite former Sith. This provided Maul with a new storyline until his actual death in a climactic final duel with Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Star Wars Brought Maul Back Again In Solo: A Star Wars Story
This Time In Live-Action
After Maul’s real death in one of Star Wars Rebels‘ best episodes, many once more ᴀssumed that his storyline was finished completely. However, Star Wars decided to throw another curveball with the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story in 2018. A spin-off movie detailing the origins of Han Solo and Chewbacca was perhaps the least likely place to possibly find the character of Maul, yet there he was in one of the story’s final scenes. Appearing for the first time in live-action since his “death” in 1999, Solo marked a third resurrection of sorts for the character.
Maul’s appearance in Solo blended his two past forms: Ray Park provided the body as he did in The Phantom Menace, with Sam Witwer providing the voice as he did in The Clone Wars and Rebels.
Maul’s appearance in Solo intended to bridge the gap between Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, detailing the character’s time as the leader of a crime syndicate. Unfortunately, Solo has the unwanted record of being the lowest-ranked Star Wars movie at the box office. Solo‘s box office bomb meant that any plans for a sequel were stalled, rendering any teases of Maul’s future involvement null and void. Some comic books have fleshed out what Maul’s role would have been in this storyline, but, on the whole, his third resurrection was sadly a huge missed opportunity.
Star Wars’ Maul Spinoff Has Made The Character Lucas Killed A Star
Maul Finally Gets A Lead Focus
Finally, the fourth – and most recent – resurrection Maul has received in Star Wars is perhaps the biggest, as it has made him a star at last. Star Wars Celeberation 2025 saw Dave Filoni reveal the next installment in Lucasfilm Animation’s repertoire – Maul: Shadow Lord. The series is set to take place one year after Maul was seen escaping Star Wars’ Order 66 during The Clone Wars. Based on the reveals of the trailer shown to those in attendance at SWCJ 2025, Maul: Shadow Lord will act as a predecessor to Solo.
The Star Wars TV show will explore Maul reaffirming his place as a crime lord in the galaxy’s underworld. Moreover, Maul will train an apprentice, seemingly based on Darth Talon, a character from Star Wars Legends whom George Lucas wished to make Maul’s trainee in his sequels. All of this means that, over 26 years after Maul’s first “death” at the hands of George Lucas, Star Wars is making the character a leading name in his own project. If anything, this makes Maul’s fourth Star Wars resurrection his most important, fully solidifying his “death” as one of the franchise’s biggest mistakes.
