The Star Wars franchise has found a home at Disney Plus over the course of the past decade. Both the launch of the streaming service and the necessity for at-home content due to the pandemic resulted in a large boom for Disney-owned properties on the platform in the early 2020s. For Lucasfilm, that meant an abundance of Star Wars TV shows - something that was pretty scarce prior to that.
Although there have been plenty of ups and downs since then, with the studio prioritizing a move back to theatrical releases in the coming years, it's clear that fans of that galaxy so far, far away still love getting Star Wars stories to the small screen. And now, we know that one of them will be sticking around for the foreseeable future.
Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord officially renewed for season 2
It's official: Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord will return for a second season. Disney has announced that the high-profile animated series has earned a season 2 renewal, which is a huge vote of confidence considering that the first season hasn't even premiered yet. And that's a welcome update for fans of the franchise.
The announcement came directly from series creator and executive producer Dave Filoni - who is also now the new President and Chief Creative Officer of Lucasfilm itself - in a press release that confirmed that the story of Maul's revenge will be extended. To say that fans are thrilled about it would be an understatement.
This is a major victory on multiple fronts. For starters, it confirms that Darth Maul's long-awaited return to the Star Wars franchise won't just be a short-term thing. The villain of The Phantom Menace was notoriously set to be the primary villain of George Lucas' original vision for the Sequel Trilogy until Disney had other plans. He has since played a bit more of a recurring role, popping up in animated projects such as Star Wars: The Clone Wars and sequel series Star Wars Rebels.
Now, it's the villain's time to get his spotlight back. To do that, he is out for revenge. The six-episode spinoff series Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord will see Darth Maul himself travel to the dark corners to the galaxy to put together an alliance that can help him get revenge on the Empire - as the corrupt organization's Inquistors hunt him down. In doing so, he comes across a young Jedi padawan who might just become his new apprentice.
Another exciting element of this announcement is that Maul is the first Star Wars show to receive a Disney Plus renewal in quite some time. The franchise's future has been called into question due to the underperformances of a number of TV shows from that iconic galaxy. And it's all started a larger conversation about whether Star Wars should return to the movie theaters permanently, taking itself off Disney Plus for good.
The Book of Boba Fett was shelved, The Acolyte was cancelled, and Skeleton Crew has yet to get an update about its future. Meanwhile, the biggest success story of Star Wars' small screen era, The Mandalorian, will be going to the big screen instead, as Lucasfilm favored the idea of producing feature film The Mandalorian and Grogu over greenlighting a fourth season of the show. And with that, only Ahsoka remained of the live-action fare, with that show set to return for its second season later this year.
Regardless of whether the story of Ahsoka Tano continues beyond Ahsoka season 2, it's clear that Lucasfilm still has some plans to keep Star Wars stories on Disney Plus. Granted, Maul's renewal may well mean that the next chapter of Star Wars TV is strictly animation, but considering the quality of previous animated shows from that franchise, we're completely fine with that.
Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord premieres on Disney Plus this Monday, April 6, with a special two-episode debut. It will then release new episodes across the next four Mondays, completing its six-episode first season. We now know that it will also return at some point down the line for season 2. And, with that, the story of Darth Maul is far from over.