Star Wars' Maul actor reveals what the Emperor really did to the Sith lord

Star Wars – Maul Shadow Lord follows Darth Maul, the ex-Sith Lord, who, a year after Revenge of the Sith. His goals: to rebuild his criminal empire on Janix, a planet untouched by the Empire, and to find an apprentice to stand by his side. His ideal candidate is Twi’lek Jedi padawan and Order 66 survivor Devon Izara.

The latter shouldn’t surprise anyone; Maul is well known for cycling through apprentices in his lifetime. Speaking to Polygon, Maul actor Sam Witwer told us that the Sith sees something of himself in the young Devon and has come a long way since he first became a master to his brother, Savage Opress. The most surprising, however, was the reveal of a key factor in Maul’s relationship with his own master, the diabolical Sheev Palpatine, aka Darth Sidious.

Image: Lucasfilm

Despite the clear contempt Maul has for Palpatine, Witwer reveals to Polygon that Maul’s time with his contemptuous master did leave an impression on him. Furthermore, it’s an impression that may even directly affect how Maul pursues and manipulates Devon into becoming his new apprentice.

“Sidious is the source of [Maul’s] suffering,” Witwer explains to Polygon. “Sidious was his master, his father figure. Maul understands that if he’s going to be so indignant and so angry about what Sidious did to him, that means that he has to be potentially a better master to whomever he takes under his wing.”

Maul viewing Palpatine as a father figure might surprise some fans, but it makes a twisted kind of sense. Male Zabraks raised on Dathomir are regarded as warriors serving the matriarchal Nightsisters, where violence is a normal way to show their strength. Palpatine first recruited Maul as a child on Dathomir before taking him away to train as his apprentice. Throughout this process, Palpatine pushed Maul to his limits, shaping him into a weapon intended to spread chaos throughout the galaxy.

Palpatine’s teachings were what Maul fell back on with his first apprentice, his brother, Savage Opress. Eager to get back into Palpatine’s good graces, Maul was willing to manipulate and abuse his brother to make Savage strong enough that they could overthrow Palpatine and his new apprentice, Count Dooku, together. Once this fails, with Savage dying at Palpatine’s hands, Maul has to recalculate.

Now, in Maul: Shadow Lord, Maul is wiser, stronger, and eager to transform Devon into an apprentice worthy of filling the space his brother left behind. To put it bluntly: he’s looking to be a better father figure than Palpatine was to him.

According to Witwer, however, that comes with a few hiccups due to who Maul is as a person.

An image from Maul: Shadow Lord. It features Brander Lawson looking up at a hologram of Maul with disgust in his eyes.

“What’s sad about all of this is that [Maul] does not have much training in how to proceed and conduct your life in an unselfish way. He doesn’t really have any training in that or any support,” Witwer says. “So it’ll be interesting to see if indeed he convinces Devon to be his apprentice. How would that go? I’m not sure.”

It’s still early days for Maul and Devon’s terse relationship. Maul may want the young Twi’lek to join his side, but she already has an incredibly patient master, and Maul’s busy grappling with other criminal syndicates. By the time Maul: Shadow Lord ends, will he have found his dream apprentice, or will it all have been for naught? We can’t wait to find out.

The first two episodes of Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord are available now on Disney Plus. New episodes will be released weekly on Mondays through May 4.