Star Wars Continues Into The Nostalgic Abyss With Darth Maul

Two large metal doors open, revealing a scarlet-faced figure with horns on their head wearing a black hooded cloak. As they throw off the cloak, they pull out a lightsaber that erupts dual crimson red blades.

It was at that moment, twenty-seven years ago that a legion of fans witnessed the birth of a pretty damn cool character. That character of course is Darth Maul, birthed in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and now an ongoing feature of many of Star Wars offerings.

Once more the character is poised to bring some bad ass moments to life before fandom with the release of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, the latest animated series coming from the Disney era of Star Wars.

Who could forget how amazing the character introduction with the immeasurably legendary John Williams’ “Duel Of The Fates” blaring at us. Then we got to see his return from being bisected in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where he became a thorn in the side of Obi-Wan Kenobi and all the Jedi, only for him to return once more to bedevil the characters of Star Wars: Rebels before meeting a poetic end at the hands of Tatooine-exiled Obi-Wan.

Death could not stop this boy though. Well, it did, cause the next appearance was in the past as a hologram and as a crime lord in Solo: A Star Wars Story. Then comes this new series, another dancing through the raindrops trip to the past.

Once upon a time there was a character named Boba Fett. You might have heard of him.

This fully armored and masked up bounty hunter was a figure that creators thought would be bad ass and cool. Till they also decided to kill him off in the most slapstick Looney Tunes like way that I’ve ever seen in any film. Just pure goofy level stuff.

Darth Maul is what Boba Fett could never be. The character dropped in like a brief badass who takes on a life of their own and becomes an enamored favorite of the fandom.

Unfortunately, Maul has now become what Boba Fett was, a character with badass potential that feels kind of sad now. I mean Maul isn’t The Book of Boba Fett level of sad. That’s a very special level of sadness (one where the title character of a series loses multiple episodes of their own show to a more popular duo of characters).

Bet that still stings for Boba Fett just a bit.

Anyway, where were we? Oh yes, about Darth Maul and the worn-out welcome mat.

Look, conceptually Maul is still a fun cool character. There are likely still some good stories to be told, and Shadow Lord might be one of those stories. I haven’t seen it yet, naturally.

At the same time, this character represents something else that is plaguing Star Wars — A franchise and fandom that increasingly has become about only wanting to see the same characters, the same stories, and the same everything time and time again. Anything new has an upward battle, until it either dies or it quickly throws in the favorite toy and blorbos that some of the audience (and creators) ooh and aww over every time.

Look at The Mandalorian, for example.

Its first season was tremendous. A real western-like story with the figures moving from place to place dealing with threats and villains. It was something we hadn’t seen in Star Wars onscreen before. Then came the second season where familiar trappings began to creep their way in, like the uncanny valley Luke Skywalker that no one needed to see.

By the third season it was just fully rolling in the Star Wars of it all, eschewing what was different or unprecedented. Its contemporary Andor, on the other hand, utilized some of the trappings but found ways to tell compelling new stories that we hadn’t seen before with them. It helped that creator Tony Gilroy is not a Star Wars fan and knew very little about the universe.

More creators who aren’t die-hard fans of things please. They seem to be able to make a lot of stuff better, because they are not slavishly devoted to the IP Franchise Gods.

Much like the Skywalkers themselves, Maul is a symptom of the nostalgic rot that is taking Star Wars into a circle far too many franchises have entered. –One where they can’t help but be caught in a destructive whirlpool of dwindling returns. Hell, the first return to the big screen in close to a decade is essentially the fourth season of The Mandalorian. Yeah, the next big screen outing is the continuation of a television streaming series that a good portion of the general audience likely never once watched (or abandoned after an earlier season).

I’m sure that’ll end up well.

As cool as Darth Maul has been and could be, when I see the character, I just think about how stagnant one of my favorite franchises has become. So much potential is being wasted by just grabbing the typical brand name toys and shaking them violently at the audience, hoping that they’ll coo and be satisfied for just a bit longer.

Take me back to the past where there seemed to be a glimmer of hope. Where things, even when they weren’t the best (I’m looking at you prequel movies), at least tried some different things. A time where the promise of the future seemed bright and not just weaponized nostalgia meant to entice the increasingly aging population who grew up on the product.

Double bladed lightsaber horny red man goes bzz bzz evil evil. While Star Wars just goes pfft pfft as all the air continues to seep out of the deflating balloon.

But hey, at least with Dave Filoni in charge, we’ll likely…oh wait, he’s the nostalgia driver.

Whelp, buckle up folks. It’s about to get real wild here.

Maybe Shadow Lord will at least be really good. It’s possible. Stranger things have happened with Star Wars.

May the Force be with us.