Unraveling Maul's Rise: The Shadow Lord's Connection to Crimson Dawn Explained
By Published Apr 27, 2026, 1:30 PM EDT Sean is a senior writer for ScreenRant and has been writing about new TV releases since December 2026. He has received multiple advance screenings of popular shows and ideated his own coverage read by hundreds of thousands of readers.
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Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Maul - Shadow Lord season 1, episode 8.After eight years, Star Wars is finally ready to address the cliffhanger ending of Solo: A Star Wars Story in its ongoing animated show. Back in 2018, with a surprise twist. After Qi'ra took control of the Crimson Dawn criminal syndicate from Dryden Vos, she contacted the true leader of the syndicate. That ending revealed that Maul, the former Sith apprentice to Palpatine, was the real leader of Crimson Dawn.
Revealing that Maul was in control of Crimson Dawn was really all Solo did with the character, however. , and any plans to continue Qi'ra's story and explain how Maul tied into Crimson Dawn's power structure were relegated to Star Wars comics. To this day, eight years later, the ending of Solo has never been explained on screen, and Star Wars fans have only learned snippets of the syndicate's history through comics and the video game Star Wars Outlaws.
Now, however, is set to finally pay off the twist ending of Solo. The animated series takes place years before Solo in the and chronicles Maul's return to power in the criminal underworld of Star Wars. The premise of a prequel alone was a promise that Shadow Lord would eventually connect to the events of Solo, but this week's episode made a very overt reference to the movie.
Maul - Shadow Lord Is About To Explain Maul’s Ties To Crimson Dawn 8 Years After Solo: A Star Wars Story
At the , Looti Vario approaches Maul and explains that Dryden Vos and Crimson Dawn are requesting an audience with him. What that audience is about won't be revealed until next week, but it seems fairly clear that Maul - Shadow Lord is preparing to explain how Maul came to control Crimson Dawn by the time of Solo: A Star Wars Story in this season's final two episodes.
The coming two episodes of Maul - Shadow Lord have a chance to finally pay off Solo eight years after the fact. Maul's appearance in Solo was very clearly meant to be the start of some larger story. If the film had been more of a success, Star Wars would probably have done more with Maul's command over the Crimson Dawn, his relationship with Qi'ra, and his Shadow Collective as a whole. Now, Shadow Lord can finally tell that story.
Maul - Shadow Lord season 1, episodes 9 and 10 should be the first time Star Wars has even approached addressing Maul's relationship with Crimson Dawn on screen since 2018. The show could finally reveal how Maul took control, what his relationship with Dryden Vos was, and how Crimson Dawn fits into the Shadow Collective. Shadow Lord won't be able to explain what happened after Vos' death or how Maul went about trying to find Han Solo, but it can explain how he got to that position of power in the first place.
Maul Is Consolidating A Lot Of Power In Shadow Lord That Needs To Disappear Before Rebels
Maul's upcoming meeting with Dryden Vos and Crimson Dawn isn't all good, however. So far, Maul has consolidated quite a bit of power for himself through his quest for vengeance against the former members of the Shadow Collective. He's basically taken over the entire smuggling industry on Janix, Looti Vario now works directly for him, and Maul has even installed Kalt as a puppet leader of the Pyke Syndicate and forced him to swear loyalty.
Now, Shadow Lord is preparing to put Maul in charge of the Crimson Dawn as well, or at least establish a very close working relationship with Dryden Vos. Once he takes influence over Crimson Dawn, Maul will become the most powerful criminal in the galaxy with two massive syndicates under his thumb, and he's showing no signs of stopping yet. That presents a problem for the Star Wars timeline, however.
After Solo: A Star Wars Story, Maul's next chronological appearance was in Star Wars Rebels. In that animated show, which takes place a few years before the outbreak of the Galactic Civil War, Maul was a powerless hermit. He was left wandering the galaxy searching for a Sith holocron, and he certainly didn't have any of the influence or resources being the leader of the Shadow Collective would entail.
Maul - Shadow Lord will have to eventually bridge the gap between Maul's appearances in Solo and Rebels. He has to lose all of his power and influence in the underworld at some point before about 2 BBY, or the main continuity of Star Wars will be broken. So, while Maul is about to solve Solo's lingering mystery, it also presents a new unanswered question: how did he fall so far in the years before Rebels?
Future seasons of Maul - Shadow Lord will likely have to start answering that very question. Another show set further along in the timeline could address that mystery, but it would make much more sense for Shadow Lord to do it. The series is already focused on Maul's time in the criminal underworld, so it would only make sense for it to start with him rising to power and end with him falling from grace. If that proves true, Maul is in for another tragic story in Maul - Shadow Lord.
Cast
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Maul (voice) -
Two-Boots (voice)
, Matt Michnovetz Expand Collapse
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