It’s been 20 years since the creation of Lucasfilm Animation. In that time, the Star Wars franchise has undergone considerable changes. From the world of the Prequel Trilogy being expanded with The Clone Wars series and introducing Ahsoka Tano, to Star Wars Rebels giving us Thrawn and so much more. To celebrate, Lucasfilm Animation Vice President, Athena Portillo, and Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm, Dave Filoni, took the stage at Star Wars Celebration 2025 to look back at the history of the studio and provide glimpses at their next two shows. One of them came in a surprise reveal that shocked fans: a full trailer for a brand new animated spin-off series titled Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord.
Dave Filoni introduced the trailer, exclusive to Star Wars Celebration attendees, without any fanfare or hints. It begins with a bank robbery on a bustling city plane not unlike Coruscant, with officers worried about some new big player in the criminal underworld. This new group has Mandalorians working for them, had rivals terrified at the sight of his sick cyborg legs, and — what’s that, a lightsaber? Why, it’s Maul, of course! The last time we saw Maul was in the Siege of Mandalore arc of The Clone Wars, and he has a long way to go from nearly escaping an Imperial prison to becoming the crazed, Obi-Wan Kenobi-obsessed old man from Star Wars Rebels.
Everything We Know About ‘Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord’
The Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord trailer shown at Star Wars Celebration Japan is set shortly after the end of the Clone Wars, with Maul angry that “a lot of people have profited from my misfortunes,” vowing to make them all pay in due time. The animated spin-off show seems to be about Maul building the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate, which also includes Qi’ra, the character played by Emilia Clarke in Solo: A Star Wars Story.
However, Maul is now having visions of the future. He sets out to find and train his own apprentice, a young red Twi’lek girl — possibly the show’s attempt to bring in George Lucas’ original plans for the Sequel Trilogy involving a female Sith, specifically Darth Talon (who is expanded upon in Legends). The series itself looks stunning, featuring a new art style that builds upon the animated style of The Clone Wars, but with more painterly textures that particularly pop off in lightsaber blades and gatling gun blaster fire.
Oh, and we also see a familiar face — Marrok, the Inquisitor from Ahsoka. Though it feels like fans have already seen enough of Maul, the truth is there are large gaps between his fall as a Sith, the creation of his crime syndicate, and his demise in Rebels. This is a character that thrives in animation, and hearing Sam Witwer voice him again is enough reason to tune into the Maul – Shadow Lord animated series when it debuts on Disney+ in 2026.
The First Episode of ‘Talks of the Underworld’ Focuses on Asajj Ventress and Quinlan Vos
Before the brand-new Maul series, Lucasfilm Animation treated audiences at Star Wars Celebration 2025 to an entire episode of the upcoming Tales of the Underworld animated anthology series, set to release this May 4 on Disney+. The episode focuses on Asajj Ventress, more specifically, as Jedi Quinlan Vos and Obi-Wan bring her corpse to Dathomir. Yes, you read that right. Quinlan Vos and a dead Ventress.
The episode appears to take place directly after the events of the canon novel Dark Disciple, in which Ventress sacrifices herself to save her lover, Vos, from Count Dooku. Tales of the Underworld will explain how she ended up alive and living as a bounty hunter during the events of The Bad Batch. This episode in particular sees Ventress return to life and attempting to live a quiet life, but when she finds a young kid trying to use the Force to buy safe passage away from an Empire-controlled planet, she inadvertently ends up helping him find the Path that Vos helped create to take Jedi to safety after “The Purge.”
This feels like the kind of story this anthology series was made for. We follow characters who had big stories told in expanded media (such as books and comics) that, to be quite honest, not many people have experienced. Dark Disciple was meant to be part of the then-canceled seventh season of The Clone Wars before getting turned into a novel, so why not give it the animation treatment the same way The Bad Batch got revived after the original episodes were (briefly) scrapped?
Lucasfilm Animation Revived an Old Idea at Star Wars Celebration 2025
Speaking of reviving old ideas, Athena Portillo and Dave Filoni introduced a never-before-seen clip of an unproduced episode found “in a dusty old computer.” The clip in question was from a story arc in which Boba Fett was taken in by Cad Bane and trained as a bounty hunter. As Filoni tells it, the story arc was, much like the “Duel of Fates” from The Phantom Menace, about fathers. “The idea was that Jango was the good father, and Cad was the bad father.”
The footage shows Cad Bane flying through Coruscant with his jet boots, and quickly abandoning Boba, who Anakin Skywalker himself is chasing on a speeder. Even in animatic form, the chase sequence through the streets of Coruscant is thrilling, with Anakin shooting at Boba, who retaliates with his signature flamethrower, grappling hook, and more. Even after Anakin loses his speeder, they continue fighting, evoking Obi-Wan’s fight with Jango in Attack of the Clones, until the young Boba manages to escape the Jedi.
The clip ends with Anakin getting a call from Mace Windu, who urges Skywalker to chase down the assassins. Who did they try to kill and why? Perhaps we’ll never know, or maybe we’ll receive a new announcement from Lucasfilm Animation in the next few years about a new Star Wars animated show. It’s happened before, after all! Stay tuned right here on Discussingfilm for more updates from Star Wars Celebration Japan.
