“How Does He Feel About His Whole Life?”

Outside of the Star Wars universe, Sam Witwer may not be a household name, but he is one of the most beloved figures at Star Wars Celebration–and is set to maintain that status with his upcoming series Maul: Shadow Lord. If you’ve watched Star Wars animation, chances are you’ve heard Witwer’s voice, as the actor has lent his talents to Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Resistance, and Star Wars: Rebels, among others. He’s also performed in video games including Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, in which he played the player character Galen Marek a.k.a. Starkiller.

Witwer’s best, or at least most canonically impactful, performance in Star Wars is as Darth Maul across the franchise’s many animated series. Maul is a character who was given an incredible amount of depth through Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, and Witwer was key to bringing most of Darth Maul’s best moments to life. With Maul: Shadow Lord, Witwer will play the character after the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, at a time in his life when he is becoming the crime boss audiences met in Solo: A Star Wars Story.

ScreenRant’s Ash Crossan caught up with Sam Witwer at Star Wars Celebration to talk Maul: Shadow Legends and Witwer’s general contributions to the Star Wars universe. Witwer discussed Maul’s state of mind in the new series and how his past contributions to the man who would become Emperor Palpatine have come back to haunt him. Check out key takeaways from the conversation, below, and keep an eye on ScreenRant for more Star Wars and Star Wars Celebration news.

Maul: Shadow Lord Continues 18 Years Of Collaboration Between Sam Witwer & Lucasfilm

Witwer Has Worked With The Shadow Lord Team For 16 Years

Maul: Shadow Lord had been in Sam Witwer’s life for a year by the time he took the stage at Star Wars Celebration to announce the project. But, the actor said, “I started 17 or 18 years ago on The Force Unleashed,” and the Maul: Shadow Lord team is the same group that Witwer has been working with since he joined Star Wars: The Clone Wars 16 years ago. “I’ve been around these folks forever,” Witwer said. “These are old friends.”

Witwer hyped up the creative team, starting with Star Wars: The Clone Wars writer Matt Michnovetz: “He’s our head writer. He is coming up with all this crazy stuff … You feel like you’re in really good hands there, and then you see the scripts, and you go, ‘Okay, great … Matt, thank you for being here.” Next was Brad Rau, who Witwer said was “in charge of the whole thing as our filmmaker [and] our on-the-ground Dave Filoni apprentice. Brad is brilliant. Brad is one of the best filmmakers I’ve ever been near.”

David Collins, who was the audio lead on Star Wars: The Force Unleashed and who played the droid PROXY, also returns for Maul: Shadow Lord, said Witwer: “He’s the lead sound on Shadow Lord, and he might play a character–you never know. There’s a weird symmetry between Force Unleashed and this project in that way. David is very involved in unexpected ways.”

Witwer was also excited to praise the directors and other creatives behind Maul: Shadow Legends, saying, “Steward Lee, for example, is doing an amazing job. Joel Aron’s infusing every frame with this painterly malice and thick shadows and reds and purples and all kinds of incredible lighting. He’s got Keith Kellogg pushing the animation farther than he’s ever pushed it. And then you have our general, Athena Portillo, who I’ve known forever. It’s so cool to have a producer who’s not going to allow you to fail.”

But certain things required the Maul: Shadow Lord team to bring in the big guns: “Of course, overseeing us all, and sometimes very much on the ground, getting his hands in the editorial and doing crazy stuff [is] the Emperor, Dave Filoni, who conceived this whole show. So, I feel very supported, and they’ve always been collaborative.”

The fact that Witwer has been playing Maul for over a decade also led to more involvement than he’s ever had on a Lucasfilm project. “In this case it was a little different,” Witwer shared, continuing, “It was like, ‘Now, you’ve been playing this character for 15 years. You need to be deeper in on the entire process.’ So, I have never been so deep inside a Lucasfilm production. It’s constant emails and phone calls and meetings and records, and it’s very exciting.”

Sam Witwer Teases Maul’s Existential Crisis In Shadow Lord

“How Does He Feel About His Whole Life?”

As Maul: Shadow Lord takes place after the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, audiences will be treated to a version of the character unlike who they met in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. “Maul is a classically trained Force user,” Witwer said, “He comes from a time of knights and magic and dragons, and now he’s seeing an Empire that is sucking the magic and life and color out of the galaxy.”

“Maul knew that Empire was coming,” Witwer continued, “and he was working for it for a while with Palpatine. [But] now that he sees it, how does he feel about it? How does he feel about a world where his sworn enemy, the Jedi Knights, are gone? How does he feel about the Jedi now? How does he feel about his whole life? That is basically where we start the series.”

As for Maul’s connection to Crimson Dawn as revealed in Solo: A Star Wars Story, Witwer had this to say: “Crimson Dawn? Interesting. Crimson Dawn… Might they show up? Who knows? We don’t know.”