In the penultimate issue of Star Wars Insider, issue #236 (out today), Maul voice actor Sam Witwer revealed new details about his character’s motivations in the upcoming animated series, Maul: Shadow Lord. In addition, Collider shared a new image from the series.
Witwer, who has been the voice of Maul for the past 15 years, described how Maul has changed since fans last saw him:
“He’s confused, and a little apprehensive … We pick up after The Clone Wars. The Empire has taken over, and Maul’s reassessing everything. There were plans in place that were supposed to insulate him from the changes when the Empire came to power, and a lot of the people that were supposed to be there for him were not. He’s getting back on his feet, the dust is clearing, and he’s looking around at the Empire— the thing he and his master had been working toward since he was an apprentice—and thinking, ‘Is this what Palpatine had in mind? How do I feel about this?’”
He also explained how Maul’s opinions of Emperor Palpatine have changed:
“[Maul] understands now that that guy is the root of his suffering. In Shadow Lord he sees it even clearer. Everywhere he looks in the Empire, he sees Palpatine’s hand. If Maul’s going to shake his fist at him, he has to believe he’s somehow superior to Palpatine. If he’s not, then he deserves everything that happened to him.”
As we’ve seen previously with Maul, he seems to get more ambitious the longer he’s away from Palpatine’s direct influence. Witwer said:
“In the opening episodes, you see him pulling strings, trying to build a new power base … His plan is ambitious, but he struggles with whether he’s the puppet master or the guy who goes and take care of things himself. He doesn’t delegate well. He’s so used to being the one who handles everything personally that he often still goes to do it when maybe he shouldn’t. Delegation is very difficult. He doesn’t trust easily.”
As he attempts to gain more influence as a shadow lord, Maul will have to learn other ways of fighting, Witwer explains:
“He’s learning to use words, manipulation, persuasion. He’s realizing there’s responsibility behind every action. That’s new territory for Maul.”
The last time Maul was seen on screen, he had just been defeated by Ahsoka Tano during the Siege of Mandalore arc of The Clone Wars. Despite his former conflict with the Jedi, Witwer explained that his attitude towards the group has shifted:
“He was trained to hate and destroy the Jedi without ever questioning it … Now he’s looking at the galaxy going, ‘Boy, we could sure use a Jedi Knight or two.’ At least with the Jedi you knew where they stood. There’s something to respect there. This Empire, he sees no values there, just the naked grab for influence, power, and money. Principles are gone. And he looks at that with a certain level of distaste. He may not have agreed with the Jedi Knights, but at least they had principles. You knew who you were dealing with and you could reason with that. There’s no reasoning with the Empire.”
In addition to providing Maul’s voice, Witwer also aided in developing the show’s subplot:
“We built this subplot that wasn’t in the scripts and what came out of it is one of my favorite things we’ve ever done with the character. It’s strange, emotional, and absolutely Star Wars … We’ve tried things you wouldn’t imagine, like me shooting reference footage for complex, emotional scenes, so the animators see how my eyes and expressions worked … Dave Filoni gave us the mandate to do everything better: acting, scripts, story, cinematography, sound. He told us to push everything further. We all wanted to make this the best thing we’ve ever done.”
You can check out the full interview inside the pages of Insider. The first two episodes of Maul: Shadow Lord premiere April 6 on Disney Plus.
Sunny has been a Star Wars fan since The Force Awakens released in 2015. She graduated with a bachlor’s degree in Journalism in 2021. When she’s not talking about a galaxy far far away, she enjoys reading, crafting, and cheering on her favorite sports teams.
source: www.starwarsnewsnet.com