Yep, doing this again. As with my previous trailer reaction series, all pics and gifs used have been taken/made by me unless otherwise noted, and will be unedited. Also, this post series, along with everything I write, does not and will never utilize AI on any level. I will do my best to make sources clear for everything I reference, but feel free to ask if you don't know where I'm pulling an idea from.
"Our target is a syndicate leader. He's associated with several criminal organizations, and proficient... with a laser-sword." —Captain Brander Lawson
We begin with this quote from Lawson. Judging by his intonation, it sounds almost as if he's reading these words off some sort of briefing. The way he hesitates over "laser-sword" specifically makes it seem like this is new information to him.
The shots that play during this dialogue are of a squad of Janix police advancing through a hallway similar to the one we saw Maul, Icarus, and Scorn fight their way through in the previous trailer. Based on the paint and overall design, I believe this is within the Janix Police HQ (referred to as the “JPHQ" from now on. Speculation post with pics explaining that assumption here).
Back to the trailer— the hallway in the opening shot, while very similar to the one we've seen Maul turn into a meat grinder, doesn't appear to be identical. If it was, the droids would be sliced apart and there would be saber marks on the walls. Instead, the droids are blown apart, and there are a whole lot of lined-up blaster marks on the wall. As if a certain nightbrother was wielding a rotary cannon in there with happy abandon. Take a look:
Maul's hallway:
This shot:
The damage patterns and bodies don't match. Notice also that the guy so coyly disappearing around the corner back there is Icarus, not Maul.
I believe the three of them arrived here together, as seen in both this and the previous trailer, then split up. Maul goes one way while Icarus and Scorn go another, probably to draw reinforcements away from wherever Maul is headed, and/or into a trap. The way Icarus seems to be baiting the police squad here would make sense in that context.
Next up is this brief shot of Lawson.
This looks like the JPHQ based on the red lighting, paint stripes, and doorway shape, so I'm willing to bet he split from the squad we just saw to go after Maul, or he's acting alone against orders, or possibly both. It's worth noting that Two-Boots is suspiciously absent from any of these red-lit police hq scenes.
After Lawson we get a series of flashes:
-A repeat from the Japan trailer of Maul dramatically bringing the two halves of his saberstaff together (to punctuate Lawson's voiceover saying “laser-sword")
-A shot of the five-man squad from the trailer's beginning stopping abruptly. The organic officer in front takes two steps back in apparent shock. I'm not convinced these first two flashes are connected. Although a red/orange light glows brighter on the police squad as the shot progresses, it is coming from the hallway behind them, not in front of them where the trailer wants to lead you to think Maul is. Whatever they're looking at, it isn't him showing off his saberstaff.
-Several police droids run past the open doorway of an undamaged hallway, under fire. It's the only shaky-cam moment l've noticed in any of the footage we've seen.
-A repeat shot from trailer 1 of Maul deflecting a bolt in front of Icarus and Scorn. This is also in the JPHQ.
After these four flashes we see another repeat of the iconic shot from trailer 1 of Maul churning through a few police droids in the JPHQ... with the addition of the coolest scene transition I've seen in A While.
Hell yeah
Next up is another beautiful shot of that star destroyer hanging over the city, still giving major Rogue One vibes, and another of squads of stormtroopers and walkers.
"The Empire tried to kill me," Maul growls. "Their betrayal demands consequence...”
So this next clip is very patched-together.
Maul jumps down from... something. It might be the remains of the kom'rk we see shot down later in the trailer, but it could also be just about anything else with a hole blown in it, hard to say. Notice he is wearing his cloak.
The camera flips to a gunship and a squad of stormtroopers, who open fire. It zooms out and we see they are firing on Maul, sans-cloak. I don't think this shot and the previous one are as sequential as the trailer implies. The lighting is quite different, and wasting time to drop the cloak wouldn't make sense if Maul was confronted immediately by those stormtroopers.
There's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment right at the end of this sequence: Maul, wearing his cloak again, cutting down... Pykes? Except that is not Maul. It's Icarus wearing a cloak, and wielding half of Maul's saberstaff.
This bit is less than a second, and I would provide a gif of it slowed way down, except tumblr decided it meant my post needed to be content-labeled, and we all know they don't pay attention to those appeals so I'll just... here's a screenshot instead:
See the not-metal legs? The vertically-lined pants? The bare arm with Icarus' tattoos?
This is my favorite tidbit from the trailer hands-down. Maul trusting this guy enough to hand him half of his saber? Huge. That they're being smart and using tactics like this to confuse their enemies? Love to see it. I’ll probably make it its own post too. Way too cool a detail to miss out on.
I'll end this first part here, because of the whole ten-image limit thing. I had to cut so many pics already.
Shadow Lord spoilers (wrt Icarus) below based on details from the new promo edit!
We got more of Icarus using Maul’s lightsaber!
(Notice the non-mechanical legs and bare, tattooed elbow)
I really think this is from an early scene in Shadow Lord and they’re going to do a fakeout Maul reveal to the audience only to reveal the real Maul toward the end of the pilot episode. It’ll give them time to introduce all the other characters and set up the beginning of the plot, all while Maul’s presence looms unseen over the narrative.
We also got some cool new shots of Maul fighting Marrok and the Crow! To me, it looks like the second one takes place in a cavern nearby to the bridge they’re fighting on in the first shot. The light quality and the look of the rocks is similar, plus Maul has visibly taken a hit to the back of his right thigh— an indicator of fight progression.
So based on the details Benjamin Percy gave in this interview with IGN, I feel pretty confident saying that the person with Brander in this shot is indeed his kid, Rylee Lawson.
How do the two of them get involved with Devon, and why are they under attack by the Empire? It’s possible that they could just be collateral in the Empire’s hunt for any remaining jedi, but it seems like something more complex may be in the works.
If you consider speculation, over-analysis of trailer footage, and details from interviews with creators involved with Shadow Lord to be spoilery, do not keep reading!!
Okay, let’s pull out the red string board. See the striped patterning on the walls in these three shots?
This looks to be the Janix police HQ. What does that have to do with Devon? I have some theories.
What do these five shots tell us?
1. Maul fights his way into the Janix Police HQ
2. Maul finds Devon in a red-lit cell
These two things may not be related! But also, maybe they are.
Theory One: Devon is arrested by the Janix Police, or even by Brander Lawson specifically, at some point in Shadow Lord.
But why would that happen? And when? And, if she was their prisoner, why is she also seen helping Lawson in other shots?
Lawson, or the Janix Police force in general, may find out she’s a jedi and bring her in, just “following orders” from the Empire. As we’ve seen in Andor, the Empire uses localized police forces across the galaxy for its own means.
It would be very fun to watch that happen, only for Lawson, a character described as being “a good man who pushes limits and breaks rules,” a common trope of copaganda characters, to actually realize the Empire is bad fucking news. It would be a refreshing change of pace from tv cops whose “heart in the right place” vibe is actually just an excuse to justify brutality and make a dangerous, loose-cannon attitude look heroic. If they could take the opposite approach with Brander Lawson, I’d love to see it.
Maybe Devon is imprisoned early-on in the show, and she’s what brings Marrok and the Eleventh Brother to Janix. Lawson, a former bounty hunter living on a world previously untouched by the Empire and perhaps encountering them closely for the first time, starts to get the message that it’s a fascism machine he shouldn’t be working with. At the same time, the inquisitors themselves find way more than they bargained for when they show up for a master/padawan duo and discover Darth Maul is operating on Janix too.
In this case, if Devon is captured alone, the Inquisitors might try to interrogate her for the location of Master Eeko Dio-Daki. This could easily be a clear red-flag moment to Lawson, especially since Devon and Rylee look to be of a similar age.
Theory Two: Devon is captured by the Inquisitors. The red-lit cell we see her held in is not part of the police station, but rather onboard a ship or other location controlled by the inquisitors.
It’s possible that Marrok and the Eleventh brother come to Janix because of rumors that jedi are hiding there, rather than the proof of a captured padawan. Perhaps those rumors even exist because Maul keeps running around killing people with lightsabers and throwing buses with his mind when he should be using Rook Kast and the others at his disposal to do most of his wetwork for him.
Putting the two together: While it’s suspicious that we see Maul find Devon in a red-lit cell, and then also watch him break into a similarly-lit Janix PD, I believe these are unrelated events married only by their emergency lighting.
Maybe Devon and Master Eeko do spend time hiding from the law, out of well-founded fear that the local authorities will turn them in to the Empire, but are never found, and it’s only rumors that bring the Inquisition to Janix. Rumors caused by Maul’s control and trust issues.
Or, maybe Devon is caught by the police and is going to be handed over to the Inquisition, but escapes because Captain Lawson has a change of heart after some firsthand experience with the Empire. From this point, they would both be considered fugitives, which would explain their collaboration in some of the scenes from the trailers.
In either case, I believe Devon does end up definitively captured by the Inquisitors, and that is the prison we see Maul find her in.
This scenario leaves open two main questions:
1. Why does Maul fight his way into the Janix Police HQ?
2. How does Devon come to be fighting with Captain Lawson against the Empire (or, how does Lawson come to be fighting the Empire with Devon)?
As for the first question, I do have an idea based on trailer footage, but I’ll leave that for the next post. The second? I’ve explained one possibility— that Captain Lawson catches her but later changes his mind and lets her go, making himself a target— but if the Janix police never catch her to begin with… it’s probably Maul’s fault.
In the marketing for Shadow Lord and Shadow of Maul, Lawson has been openly set up as an opposing force to Maul, who is openly after Devon as a new apprentice. Devon, as a jedi, will probably not be super interested in this. She chooses to fight him during the tea ceremony, and we also saw Maul crossing blades with Master Eeko in the Japan trailer. They are not going to get along at first, if ever, and it would make sense that Maul’s pursuit of Devon could push her and Lawson into a circumstantial team-up.
Perhaps Devon and Eeko, having been discovered by Maul and with the Empire’s arrival on Janix, decide that going to Lawson for help is less of a risk than trying to go it alone. Lawson, who is actively investigating Maul, would be happy to provide the classic trade of information for police protection, not knowing he’s harboring jedi. Eventually, the Inquisitors find them, and Lawson becomes an enemy in the eyes of the Empire too.
Shadow Lord turning into a three-way fight over Devon would be pretty entertaining. The Inquisitorius trying to kill or capture her, Maul desperately trying to adopt her as a new apprentice, and single-father Brander Lawson trying to keep her away from both of them. I’m calling this one the custody battle theory.
What do you guys think? Am I onto something or just spinning my wheels? What did I miss? Comments and reblogs with your own thoughts and theories are more than welcome!
I’d like to try and do a series of posts prior to the Shadow of Maul release that focus on speculation for Shadow Lord, to get my initial thoughts and theories all in order before the first comic issue throws a bunch of fun new info at us. That way, I can have a good time coming back to see how much I got right, wrong, or somewhere in between when Shadow Lord is all over.
To begin, I’m just going to look at one question:
Why does Shadow Lord take place on Janix?
I’d like to state right now that none of these posts, or anything else I write, use AI in either the writing or images. All images I use will either be official art linked clearly to its source, with an additional link to the artist, or a screenshot I have taken from the Shadow Lord trailers posted on youtube.
Additionally, all of this speculation is my own, for better or worse. If I include any ideas from other creators, I will credit those creators. All of my information will come from official trailers, articles, and interviews, and the source will either be linked or clearly stated. If it is ever unclear what I’m referencing, please don’t hesitate to ask about it!
Now, back to the question at hand…
Why Janix?
Shadow Lord has been described as a fast-paced, highly serialized police procedural, and a pulpy noir. The world of Janix has been created specifically to support this vision of the story the writers want to tell. Instead of relying on a planet with existing lore— Nar Shaddaa, for example— to carry the tone they wanted, they have created something bespoke. Janix itself will function as a character of its own, and it will help inform the story we are told.
In an interview with IGN, Benjamin Percy, the writer of Shadow of Maul, says, “I absolutely love the world of Janix. My two favorite Star Wars stories are Andor and Rogue One. And that’s because they’re grounded in realism. We’re taking a similar approach here. And this city is more than a stage—it’s a character in itself. Steam hisses from vents, billowing the air. Neon burnishes the night. Trash dirties the gutters. Lawson pops his collar and shoulders forward through the rain-drenched crowds. It’s all very noir.”
It’s quite a setting in which to place Darth Maul, but one his character has flirted with in the past during his time wrangling disparate syndicates during The Clone Wars, and when you consider his future as the shadow-ruler of Crimson Dawn and puppet master of the Big Five, it’s easy to imagine him learning to thrive in this role.
But what makes Maul himself set his sights on Janix?
I’m guessing it’s his old favorites: fortune, power, and revenge.
“There are many who have prospered from my misfortune,” Maul muses in the Celebration Japan trailer, “but in time... they will all pay."
This dialogue plays during a shot of a group of pykes who stand looking ready to perform a handoff of several large pallets. They are not dissimilar from the pallets of imperial credits we saw in the first arc of Andor season one. Later, we see droids moving the same pallets around, and it is possible that at least one of them appears in the second trailer as well, in the possession of Rook Kast and a few others of Maul’s crew.
In the publisher’s summary of Shadow of Maul issue #2, which will release on April 8th, two days after the Shadow Lord Premiere, a “smuggled imperial fortune” is mentioned.
This stolen fortune may be of interest to Maul, who needs a way to fund his own operation. If he can steal it from the Pyke syndicate, who abandoned him when the Shadow Collective dissolved during the events of Son of Dathomir, all the better. Fortune and a bit of revenge rolled into one.
We see the pykes several times in both trailers, with Maul attacking one or more of their membership directly on at least two occasions. In the Japan trailer, he is seen presumably force-choking one of them, and in the very final shot of the public reveal trailer he cuts down not Marrok, but someone who looks to be wearing the standard outfit of the pykes shown the screenshots above. There are also a few bodies in the background.
In the same IGN interview I mentioned before, Benjamin Percy also gave us one tidbit about Maul:
“I’m not sure I’m allowed to say much about [Maul]. I’ll keep it vague and say he’s got an ax (or, er, a double-sided light saber) to grind—and some folks on Janix are in his crosshairs.”
Sam Witwer, the voice of Maul and a collaborator for Shadow Lord, told Star Wars Insider Magazine, “In the opening episodes, you see him pulling strings, trying to build a new power base.”
So Maul is looking for a way back on his feet, trying to find the handholds he needs to rebuild his power in a very different galaxy.
Unfortunately, I believe Janix may prove a rough start for him.
Executive producer and supervising director Brad Rau says that Shadow Lord is “highly serialized, very connected all the way through,” and executive producer Matt Michnovetz adds that, “it’s a super fast-paced series. We wanted to create an action-packed thrill ride, something that had the rush of a roller coaster, so we do a lot of homages to the classic serials of the day, which gave George Lucas the inspiration for Star Wars. And we've got the perfect character to drive us through this in Maul.”
With a description like that and only ten episodes, it seems reasonable to conclude that the story of Shadow Lord will not cover an extended period of time. The show may very well take place over just a few in-universe days.
Also, it’s likely that the majority of scenes we’ve been shown in the trailers happen in the first couple of episodes. That means that once the Empire takes an interest in Janix, it happens fast. We may see Inquisitors onworld, and even Maul facing them down, as part of the two-episode premiere on April 6th. (Check out part 2 of this speculation series for my theories on why they show up in the first place!)
With so much sudden attention from the Empire, it seems unlikely that Maul will continue to try to operate on Janix at all. If anything, the plot of Shadow Lord may turn increasingly to his attempts to elude them and move his operations elsewhere as quickly as possible without losing whatever (or whoever) he’s managed to gain in the time he does have.
It is possible the Inquisitor fights we’ve seen in the trailers are part of later episodes of Shadow Lord… but that just doesn’t follow how pre-release teaser trailers for Star Wars’ animated projects are usually put together. I’m betting Marrok and the Eleventh Brother will show up sooner rather than later.
But, of course, that begs the question: what threat comes after the Inquisitors fail?
Thanks for reading! Part two of this series, “Devon and the Lawsons,” is scheduled to release later today available now! Let me know what y’all think! What did I miss? How are we feeling about a “serialized noir police procedural” Maul show?
Welcome back to the speculation series! In part one, I talked about what seems to have brought Maul to Janix in the first place: the opportunity to steal something important from the Pykes. Part two got into some of my theories on how Maul, Devon, and Brander Lawson might come together, how they might begin affecting each other’s stories before they ever meet face-to-face, and how and why the Empire could come into play too.
For part three, I’d like to dig further into this implied initial heist event and get into all the clues that the trailers and the Shadow of Maul comic previews have provided us.
If you consider this sort of analysis, or information from the Shadow of Maul issue #2 publisher summary to be spoilers, do not continue reading past the break!
But! Before I turn anyone away unnecessarily, I’d like to point out that the spoilers given in the publisher’s summary for Shadow of Maul issue #2 are very light. I’m calling them that to be safe. It confirms the details of what Maul and co are (probably) stealing, and gives us the name of the gran crime lord we see arguing with a different guy over dinner in a warehouse.
If you want to be extra safe, abandon ship now, if you like tasty crumbs, hit the readmore!
Okay, the aforementioned summary states the following: “Ruthless mercenaries are looking to unload IMPERIAL treasure! Crime lord DEEMIS will stop at nothing to get it! Will CAPTAIN LAWSON be able to thwart the exchange of the smuggled fortune?”
In the Celebration Japan trailer, we see what could be the stolen goods being referred to, guarded by the Pykes and then loaded onto a transport.
This transport, specifically. We see the same vehicle a number of times in the second trailer— involved in at least one chase sequence (with a group of mandos and nightbrothers riding in the back), and again in the scene where Maul makes his dramatic appearance to cut down a squad of Janix riot police.
So Maul’s team intercept and hijack this transport at some point. Probably a very early point. I wouldn’t be surprised if this event is used to kick off Shadow Lord’s pilot. In the shot above, it looks like they were in the process of unloading it, most likely to move the goods to the ship Maul comes out of, when the cops caught up.
So: Maul steals this Imperial fortune that the Pykes stole from the Empire. Many people are now unhappy about this. The Pykes, for one. Deemis, for another, who it seems to be implied was the intended recipient of the credits from the Pykes, or maybe he just wants them too. Captain Lawson is now very unhappy, because who the hell is this new player that can waltz into the middle of this sort of handoff and slaughter anyone who tries to stop them, a police riot squad included?
Also, I’m pretty sure the Empire wants their money back.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if the thing that brings them to Janix in the first place is an attempt to track down their stolen credits, and not anything at all to do with possible jedi fugitives? And then Maul blows his “the Empire thinks I’m dead” cover because he can’t keep his mouth shut and his face off drone footage. It would be nice if he blows his cover to protect his people when two Inquisitors show up, but also… I’ll have a great time pointing and laughing at him if it’s as simple as his chronic case of can’t-shut-up-and-sit-still-itis.
Getting back to the heist, it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s what Deemis and Vario are talking about over their meal in the warehouse. In the Japan trailer, their conversation goes like this:
Vario: "Man... Any idea who pulled that one?"
Deemis: "None of them have the nerve to pull something like this off."
Vario: "Well.. one person— maybe."
Deemis: "He's long gone."
It’s implied that they’re talking about Maul. That may not be true; the people who designed the reveal trailer could have just used this back-and-forth out of context to make it seem like it’s about Maul. But presuming it is has some interesting implications.
It sounds like Deemis and Vario are talking about two different jobs. “Any idea who pulled that one?” past-tense, followed by, “None of them have the nerve to pull something like this off,” present-tense.
Vario implies that he knows of Maul, “well, one person— maybe,” but also acts like he doesn’t know who is responsible for whatever the past-tense incident was. If it was the theft of the Pykes’ imperial haul— the stuff that was (maybe) supposed to go to Deemis— then either Maul covered his tracks while still somehow being locally infamous enough that these two don’t even have to say his name to be clear to each other who they’re talking about, or Vario is lying and he totally knows Maul did it. It could be telling that the next thing out of his mouth is to bring Maul up.
Another possibility is that Maul’s theft of the stolen Imp credits is the present-tense incident, which again begs the question of what Maul has done previously to be known in such a way to Janix’s local crime lords.
These guys could know Maul by reputation from his time shaking up the underworld during the Clone Wars, especially if they’re involved with the big syndicates like Crymorah, the Hutts, or Black Sun. Even smaller crime lords probably know of Maul, but assuming that Maul himself might be responsible for a random hit on Janix if he wasn’t already known to be operating in the area… seems like too big a leap. If the imperial fortune was truly so massive, or the Pykes’ reputation so formidable, that no one but the biggest of the biggest players would even make a try for it… then maybe it becomes more plausible to pull Maul’s name out of thin air? This would also explain what Deemis means when he says, “he’s long gone.” Unsure without more context here.
Perhaps we’ll get some clues in a few days with the release of Shadow of Maul issue #1!
