MAUL - SHADOW LORD Trailer Leaks Online And Reveals Some Huge STAR WARS Debuts In The Animated Series

Yesterday, it was confirmed that the next Star Wars animated series will be Maul - Shadow Lord. Exploring The Phantom Menace villain's rise to the top of the criminal underworld, it promises to fill in some big gaps in the former Sith apprentice's history. 

The first trailer has now leaked online from Japan and offers a much better idea of what to expect. For starters, we see that the animation style is very much in line with what we've come to expect from shows like The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and The Bad Batch. 

The main focus of the teaser is to show Maul unleashing hell on his enemies, but the big reveal comes when the iconic villain is revealed to be training a pink/red-skinned Twi'lek as his new apprentice.

This is almost certainly a young Darth Talon, yet another character Dave Filoni is bringing into canon from "Star Wars Legends"/the Expanded Universe. 

George Lucas' plan was for her to factor into his Star Wars sequels as Maul's new apprentice, with him serving in an Emperor Palpatine-like role as a crimelord. Talon would have been his Darth Vader, but the idea was scrapped when Disney decided to head in another direction. It will be interesting to see how much of that we get here. 

There's another big reveal right at the end as we see Marrok, the short-lived Sith Inquisitor from Ahsoka, confront Maul. He appears to know who Maul is - and was likely still alive at this point - so Filoni might finally give the character a backstory. 

"After the Clone Wars, Maul plots to rebuild his criminal syndicate on a planet untouched by the Empire," reads a brief synopsis. "In a new series set after the events of the final season of The Clone Wars, Maul rises again to lead the underworld factions."

Sam Witwer, who first portrayed Maul in The Clone Wars and later reprised the role in Star Wars Rebels, is back to voice the iconic villain. He's made the character his own after taking over the role from The Phantom Menace's Peter Serafinowicz.

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord is currently in production and will debut on Disney+ in 2026. You can watch the leaked trailer below (and, if it's removed, another version can be found here).