Star Wars returns to Disney+ with an upgrade.
The new animated series, Maul – Shadow Lord, tells the story of what happened before Maul appeared in Solo: A Star Wars Story and Star Wars Rebels. Set within the official Star Wars timeline after the events of Order 66 and The Clone Wars, the series follows Maul as he seeks revenge against the Empire while rebuilding his power in the galaxy’s criminal world. He also tries to convince a young Jedi apprentice, Devon Izara, to join him and fight against their shared enemies.
Athena Yvette Portillo, executive producer of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, shared in an interview with ScreenRant that Dave Filoni wanted to improve the animation quality even further before starting season 2 of Ahsoka. They discussed making character movements more realistic, giving the visuals a look similar to oil paintings, and incorporating techniques like using physical models and map paintings. You can read Portillo’s full statement below.
Before Dave Filoni started filming season two of Ahsoka, we talked about how to improve the animation. I shared some ideas with him, and he approved them before we moved forward. A major focus was enhancing the character’s physical movements – we went into the animation rigs to refine how the characters moved, making walk cycles, fights, and facial expressions feel more natural and fluid. We also worked on giving the animation a more artistic, painterly look, discussing techniques with Joel Aron, Keith Kellogg, and Andre Kirk to achieve a brushstroke effect.
We returned to a traditional approach, creating oil paintings on canvas as backgrounds, which we then filmed and combined digitally. We also used brushstrokes on glass, filming those and integrating them into the show. We even built some physical models. By blending these older techniques with modern digital tools, we aimed to give the show a more sophisticated, cinematic look and create the illusion of live-action footage, even though everything is animated.
Before its release on Disney+, many analyses of the Maul – Shadow Lord trailer have highlighted the show’s distinctive animation style. This style complements the series’ darker mood and its focus on the noir crime thriller genre. Like the Star Wars prequels and sequels, Lucasfilm combined traditional and computer-generated imagery to create a unique look for the new animated series.
Early reactions to Maul – Shadow Lord consistently praise its animation, with many calling it the best yet seen in a Star Wars animated series. While it shares some stylistic similarities with The Clone Wars – the series that brought Maul back after his apparent death in The Phantom Menace – the animation has a darker, more textured look. It’s both beautifully painted and incredibly fluid in its character movements, marking a shift from the animation style of The Clone Wars, which has continued to be used in recent shows like The Bad Batch and the Tales anthology.
Each new animated Star Wars series has improved upon the last, and Maul – Shadow Lord is a great example of that growth. Dave Filoni, who led The Clone Wars and is now a top creative leader at Lucasfilm, has consistently pushed for higher quality animation. Despite his increased responsibilities, animation remains important to him, and the team behind Maul – Shadow Lord – including Portillo, Joel Aron, Keith Kellogg, and Andre Kirk – successfully met his challenge to create something visually striking and innovative.
The popularity of Maul – Shadow Lord has already guaranteed a second season, even though the first hasn’t finished airing on Disney+. A second season will give the unique animation style room to develop further as the story grows, potentially becoming the main backdrop. The first season mainly takes place on the planet Janix, where Maul rebuilds his criminal organization and encounters Devon, all while being pursued by police detective Brander Lawson (Wagner Moura), Lawson’s droid companion Two-Boots (Richard Ayoade), and agents from the Empire known as Inquisitors.
The new animated series, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, will debut on Disney+ with a two-episode premiere on April 6th. New episodes will then be released in pairs each week, continuing through May 4th.
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2026-04-04 22:58