Over 25 years ago, Darth Maul was killed off in his first appearance in Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace. However, Maul’s popularity eventually led to his return in the Star Wars animated series The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Maul was killed off for a second time in Rebels season 3, but even that won’t be the end of his story. During Star Wars Celebration, Lucasfilm announced Maul: Shadow Lord, a new animated series featuring Darth Maul in the leading role.
Maul – Shadow Lord, a Star Wars Original series, arrives on @DisneyPlus in 2026. #StarWarsCelebration pic.twitter.com/yW2YDxGj3J
The series will be set between The Clone Wars and the first appearance of Maul on Star Wars Rebels, when he was a broken man and bereft of the criminal empire he had built for himself. Shadow Lord will also feature Maul taking on an apprentice, but the identity of that character wasn’t confirmed. Sam Witwer, who voiced Maul in The Clone Wars and Rebels, will once again reprise his role for the show.
Witwer also voiced Maul’s last appearance in live-action, during a cameo in Solo: A Star Wars Story. In that scene, Maul was in control of a criminal organization known as Crimson Dawn. Han Solo’s former lover, Qi’ra (Emilia Clarke), choose to return to Maul’s service rather than stay with Han. Although Qi’ra has resurfaced in Marvel’s Star Wars comics, the story of her time with Maul remains largely unexplored. Maul: Shadow Lord could potentially address that lingering thread. But for now, there’s no indication that Qi’ra will be the apprentice in that series.
Among the other reveals from the first day of Star Wars Celebration 2025, Lucasfilm showed off the first footage from The Mandalorian & Grogu. Star Wars: Starfighter — the previously rumored movie starring Ryan Gosling from director Shawn Levy — was also formally announced for a May 2027 debut. More Star Wars news may be shared this weekend.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.