Maul: Shadow Lord Trailer Breakdown - 10 Key Star Wars Reveals

The first trailer for Maul: Shadow Lord has finally arrived, featuring several exciting reveals for the upcoming animated Star Wars show. Starring Maul during the Dark Times of Imperial rule, we're finally going to see the missing chapter of the former Sith Lord's story.

Set one year after the Clone Wars, Maul: Shadow Lord's brand-new trailer teases the rise of Maul's powerful Crimson Dawn crime syndicate, confrontations with Inquisitors, a potential new apprentice, and much more. Keeping that in mind, here are 10 of the biggest reveals from the new trailer for Maul: Shadow Lord.

Janix - A New Cityscape World

The new Maul: Shadow Lord trailer introduces us to Janix, a new galactic world StarWars.com has confirmed features a city built within a giant crater. Currently insulated from Imperial influence, Janix is apparently a hotbed for criminal activity, making it the perfect place for Maul to begin expanding his own criminal empire.

Pykes & Mandalorians - The Origins of Crimson Dawn

Members of the Pyke syndicate and a handful of Mandaorians are both featured in the new Star Wars trailer. During the Clone Wars, both were key factions in Maul's Shadow Collective he used to seize power and eventually stage a hostile takeover of Mandalore.

Beyond the Clone Wars, the Pykes have been featured in live-action with The Book of Boba Fett. Likewise, we also get a brief shot of the Mandalorian warrior Rook Kast, one of Maul's top lieutenants during the Siege of Mandalore.

A New Star Wars Animation Style For Maul: Shadow Lord

While still echoing the animation style of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Maul: Shadow Lord goes further with some impressive visual improvements and a very cool paintbrush-type style. As confirmed by Lucasfilm's Athena Portillo on StarWars.com:

"Cinematography Lighting & VFX Director Joel Aron really took it up a notch with going back to the practical ways of capturing brush strokes by painting them on glass, shooting them then strategically placing them in shots. He even went back to establishing matte paintings on canvas."

Maul Is A Major Imperial Fugitive

The trailer also confirms that Maul is indeed an Imperial fugitive with various wanted posters being shown. However, we also see what looks to be local law enforcement from Janix investigating Maul as well, not just the Empire alone.

We're also introduced to a young Twi'lek who looks to be a Jedi apprentice on the run from the Empire with her master. StarWars.com confirms her name is Devon Izara, though it's quite likely that Devon will eventually become a canonical version of Legends' Darth Talon, an apprentice of Darth Maul, who would have been a key villain in George Lucas' original vision for the sequel trilogy.

Keeping that in mind, it's very significant that Maul is shown offering to teach Devon new perspectives and ways of viewing the galaxy following the fall of the Jedi Order.

Brand-New Zabrak Allies

We also see that Maul has new Zabrak allies, suggesting that he may have gone back to his homeworld of Dathomir to recruit the Nightbrothers, a clan to whom his late brother Savage Oppress once belonged. They also served the Dathormiri Force witches known as the Nightsisters.

Darth Maul vs Imperial Inquisitors (Sixth Brother and Marrok)

The new trailer for Maul: Shadow Lord also confirms that Maul will eventually duel two Imperial Inquisitors. The first Inquisitor is the Sixth Brother, one of the more mysterious members of the Inquisitorius who was eventually killed by Ahsoka Tano in Tales of the Jedi, confirming that Maul must take place prior to those events during the Dark Times.

The second Inquisitor is none other than Marrok aka The Fifth Brother, the undead and reanimated Jedi hunter who fought Ahsoka in the first season of the live-action Ahsoka series. While he never learned how he died, perhaps Shadow Lord will reveal that it was Maul himself who did the deed before Morgan Elsbeth revived him to serve her during the New Republic Era.

"The Emperor Wants You Dead"

This line from Sixth Brother confirms that Maul is very much on Emperor Palpatine's radar. Following a confrontation with these Inquisitors, it's possible Palpatine might even send Darth Vader himself to deal with Maul, providing us with a long-awaited fight between Darth Sidious' previous and current apprentices in the official canon.

At any rate, Maul being a known threat to Palpatine's Empire will likely be what eventually sends Maul further into the shadows by the series' end, explaining why he ends up using figureheads for Crimson Dawn like Dryden Vos as we see in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

"Chains Can Be Broken" - The Sith Code

"Chains can be broken" is heard from Maul at the trailer's end, a line referencing the canonical Sith Code:

Peace is a lie. There is only Passion.

Through Passion, I gain Strength.

Through Strength, I gain Power.

Through Power, I gain Victory.

Through Victory my chains are Broken.

The Force shall free me.

When Savage Oppress first found Maul during the Clone Wars, he was insane and without his legs following his defeat in The Phantom Menace. Liekwise, the crazed former Sith was raving about the Sith Code and specifically its reference to chains:

"Through victory my chains are broken. The chains. The chains are the easy part. It's what goes on in here that's hard."

As a result, "Chains can be broken" is a great callback to Maul's return to the canon following his perceived death in Episode I.

"Empires Can Be Shattered" - Maul's Future Plans

Additionally, "Empires can be shattered" is also very significant as Maul's final line in the new Star Wars trailer, confirming that Maul has the goal of breaking his former master's Empire given the opportunity.

In the canonical Star Wars comics set between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, we learn that Solo's Lady Qi'ra came to inherit leadership of Crimson Dawn after Maul left the syndicate and eventually met his true end on Tatooine in a final duel with Obi-Wan.

Additionally, it was Qi'ra who finally implemented one of Maul's many plans to kill Palpatine and Vader. Of course, she failed, though she did get incredibly close thanks to Maul's designs.

Now, it's going to be fascinating to see what other kinds of plans Maul might have envisioned in addition to the ones we already know about (one can imagine that having an apprentice like Devon may play a key part).

Maul: Shadow Lord begins streaming April 6th on Disney+.