Most of the time, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Palpatine don’t have anything in common given… well, anyone who’s watched the Star Wars movies knows why. However, one thing they do share is Maul’s hatred. The former Sith Lord who killed Qui-Gon Jinn has drastically different reasons for holding them with as much contempt as possible. However, when it comes to Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord, which just premiered on the 2026 TV schedule, Sam Witwer, Maul’s voice actor, explained why he’s “obsessing over” Palpatine more than Obi-Wan in the Disney+ subscription-exclusive series.
The critically-acclaimed Shadow Lord takes place one year after the end of the Clone Wars and rise of the Empire, when Maul is attempting to rebuild his criminal syndicate that collapsed in The Clone Wars TV show’s final episodes. During my interview with Sam Witwer and Gideon Adlon, who voices Order 66 survivor Devon Izara, I asked Witwer whether Palpatine or Obi-Wan was his favorite antagonistic dynamic with Maul. The actor explained why the former is more important to him at this stage of his character’s life, saying:
Well, that's difficult. Right now, the one that I'm obsessing over is the Palpatine one because in this series, he doesn't think that Obi-Wan's around. Order 66 happened, how could Obi-Wan have possibly survived that? So he’s been forced to confront the idea that the true source of his suffering is Palpatine, and that's made complicated by the fact that that's essentially his father. That's the guy that raised him. So that's where his head's at right now, and therefore that's where my head's at. So if you had asked me when I was sparring with James Arnold Taylor, I might have said Obi-Wan, but right now, I think the Palpatine thing has my full attention.
Maul is well within his rights to hate Obi-Wan Kenobi given how he bisected him in The Phantom Menace, and the two would later clash a few times in The Clone Wars, where Obi-Wan was voiced by James Arnold Taylor. But it’s like Sam Witwer said, when Shadow Lord is happening, Maul understandably thinks that this particular enemy is dead, so there’s no reason to dwell on that particular hatred. Of course, we know Maul learns of Obi-Wan’s survival in Star Wars Rebels, though that knowledge leads to his permeant demise at the hands of the Jedi Master, voiced in this appearance by Stephen Stanton.
Meanwhile, with Palpatine now ruling the galaxy far, far away with an iron first, Maul has plenty of hatred to spare for him. First off, the man also known as Darth Sidious abuse and torture Maul for many years while training him to be his apprentice. Then in The Clone Wars Season 5, Sidious learned Maul was still alive and proceeded to easily defeat him and kill his brother, Savage Oppress. So during the events of Shadow Lord, Maul is certainly no fan of the Empire, and you know he’s take another stab at killing Palpatine (figuratively and literally) if the opportunity came along.
Since Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord has already been renewed for another season, perhaps the show will deliver just that. For now though, Maul is focused to resurrecting the Shadow Collective, but he’s also taken an interest in Devon Izara, whom he encounters on Janix in the Shadow Lord premiere. Two episodes will continue being released per week on Disney going to May 4, a.k.a. Star Wars Day.
