I think Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord is the best opportunity to feature this long-awaited Sith Lord face-off 

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord was recently unveiled at the ongoing Star Wars Celebration in Japan. Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord is slated to be released in 2026 and will serve as an animated series focused on the former Sith Lord and his travails in the Star Wars netherworld.

In terms of the timeline, Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord will be based around a year after the events of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and is being speculated to be designed much like it's predecessor. While the tale of the former Sith Lord certainly presents several narrative opportunities, there's one possible showdown that I believe might excite the audience i.e. a face-off between Maul and Vader.

Here's everything that we know.

Disclaimer: This article contains the author's opinions. Reader discretion is advised.

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord: The connections between Maul and Vader explained

It doesn't come as a wonder to put Maul and Vader together in the same sentence, as they share certain similarities and one goal in particular. The trailer for Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord that was shown during the celebration in Japan didn't contain too many details about the plot of the upcoming show. However, I can speculate about the same. It is also a known fact that though Maul has been appearing in the canon works since 1999, there's a sixteen-year-long period in his life between the events of The Clone Wars and Rebels that have remained largely unexplored in terms of narrative potential.

When I come to think of it now, both Maul and Darth Vader were in a way related to Palpatine, i.e., being Sith apprentices. Then again, there was this one time when Darth Vader almost ended up meeting Maul in person, but missed by a narrow margin. Fans of the canon franchise will remember the episode of Rebels titled Twilight of the Apprentice when both Maul and Darth Vader were present at the Sith Temple on the planet of Malachor. This was also after Maul had been marooned on Malachor and left to his own devices.

The storyline of the episode had Kanan Jarrus, Ezra Bridger, and Ahsoka acting upon Yoda's advice and visiting the planet of Malachor. In a subsequent attack on their group by the Inquisitors, Ezra was separated from the others and, being unaware of Maul's vicious past, fell prey to his cunning and manipulation. Maul's designs were focused on retrieving a superweapon that had been built into the Sith Temple, and for this purpose, he tried to convince Ezra to use a Sith holocron.

However, when Ahsoka and Kanan joined up with Ezra, they were able to see through Maul's plans and sought to resist him. A battle broke out between them during which Maul blinded Kanan, but as the Force was strongly in his favour, Kanan was able to fight without his vision and was able to defeat Maul by ultimately throwing him over the wall and into a chasm. Darth Vader, on the other hand, was also looking for the Sith holocron and arrived just a few moments after Maul's exit from the scene.

Both Maul and Vader harbour a pathological hatred for Obi-Wan. I guess if both of them set forth on their known quest to seek out Obi-Wan, they might just end up facing each other off, and this is one possibility that Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord might take up through the course of its narrative. Furthermore, how can I ever forget that Maul eventually ended up being a liability to Palpatine, who was eager to erase him after his rise to power? Thus, in case Palpatine decides to enlist Darth Vader's help to finish off Maul, the two would inadvertently face each other off.

Sam Witwer spills details about Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord

Sam Witwer has done much to make the character of Maul as popular as it is, based solely on his exceptional voice acting, as he has been the voice behind the character for a long time now. In the aftermath of the announcement of Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord, Witwer spoke exclusively in an interview with IGN, wherein he spilled a few revealing details about Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord:

"It takes place a year after the Clone Wars have ended, and Maul is in a very challenging place, because the people that he had around him, a lot of them scattered or betrayed him during the Clone Wars. So we're dealing with a guy who is trying to figure out well, my God, what is my purpose? Maul, you have to remember, is a classically trained force user, a classically trained Sith.”

When asked about the reason why Maul never gives up his connection to Palpatine, Witwer explained:

"He comes from a time of magic, knights, passion, enthusiasm, aggression, fire – magic. Now he is seeing an empire that he knew was coming, and the magic and the color is being sucked out of the universe. How does he feel about that? Did he see that that was going to be the way that it was? Is this different than what he expected and how does he feel that affects him? What does he wanna do about it? Can he do anything about it? He's not very equipped right now. So this is a guy who's trying to figure out what his destiny is.”

He further added:

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"Something else, he was trained his entire life to hate and kill Jedi, and he killed more Jedi than people were aware of in the Clone Wars. You know, there (were) indications that (he) and Savage Opress went off on a rampage as well. It was worse than you think. And now they’re gone. How does he feel about the Jedi, his sworn enemy – how does he feel about them now that they are gone? You know? All of these things, so we're challenging this perspective. So what is his destiny? What is who is he without his greatest enemy to fight and destroy? And he learns that perhaps part of his destiny is to inspire a young person; train an apprentice.”

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lord is expected to drop sometime in 2026.

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