'Maul: Shadow Lord' Ends On a High, 'Star Wars' Celebration 2027 Begins On a Low

Happy Sunday, and welcome to a new edition of “This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away“. And what a week it’s been. May the Fourth brought the best season finale of an animated Star Wars series we’ve had in years in Maul: Shadow Lord, while Wednesday brought absolute madness — more on that later. All of that while we’re less than two weeks away from The Mandalorian and Grogu hitting theaters. After that, the next Star Wars coming our way should be Ahsoka Season 2, which Dave Filoni just said is in the middle of editing. Disney is hosting a panel at the TV upfronts on Tuesday, where they could show some footage from the new season — though likely not release it to the public.

As I alluded to above, I will have a small rant below about the whole Star Wars Celebration debacle that happened on Wednesday, but if you want to hear from someone even more passionate about it, check out Tyler’s retelling of the situation on Thursday’s SWNN Live! (Note: I was planning to attend, but the ticket purchase had my blood pumping so hard, for the wrong reasons, mind you, that I did not rest well that night and could not manage to stay up for the show.) And in other plugs, we also have a new Character Spotlight on Marrok.

One last thing, as usual — remember that you can sign up for our Discord server by clicking here.

Three Things That May Have Flown Casual

What we watched: There was a lot of Star Wars watched last year, Nielsen revealed on Monday for May the Fourth. The franchise combined around 550 million hours watched on Disney Plus, with Andor being the most streamed title, followed by A New Hope and then, The Phantom Menace. Interesting bit (as a sequel trilogy fan): Tales of the Underworld accumulated more views than any of the sequels. More details here.Gaming developments: Also on Monday, Casey Hudson revealed the creative team working on The Fate of the Old Republic, the video game announced at the end of last year. And speaking of Old Republic, Quantic Dream continues to insist their Star Wars: Eclipse game is very much happening by posting a job for an environment artist.Publishing updates: After a massive drought in new comic releases, we have new reviews for The Bad Batch: Rogue Agents #3 (by Colin) and the one-shot Rogue One: Cassian Andor (by Josh). Aled also reviewed the final issue of Star Wars Insider.

Maul: Shadow Lord Season 1 Injects New Life Into Star Wars Animation

I don’t want to be the downer of the group, but it’s been a minute since any Star Wars animated series has felt like a must-watch. And it’s weird to say this about a show centered around a character that was brought back to life in such a Frankenstein-like way, both literally and figuratively, but the first season of Maul: Shadow Lord really impressed me. Yes, I was a bit negative on episodes 7-8 because of the heavy-handedness of the plot vs. story, but I feel like the last two episodes really made up for it. (Related: check out Colin’s excellent review for the two-part finale here.)

And no, it wasn’t because of Vader. In fact, Vader might be the most disappointing thing about those episodes — mostly because of the “been here, done that” feeling that every Vader appearance in this time period has evoked. How many times will we have him play the big boss from whom our characters eventually manage to run away? We did it in Rebels, Fallen Order, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Rogue One, Outlaws, and now Maul. There were some interesting discussions about this on our Discord chat this week. He feels like a plot device rather than an actual villain or even a menace by this point, and that kinda diminishes his power.

Almost everything else worked. Ok, I also didn’t buy the lightsaber battle in Episode 9, but that’s it! Maul felt like he reached a satisfying conclusion to his arc in the season, while leaving the door wide open to the Season 2 storyline, which promises to be the master-apprentice type of story we never got to see in Rebels. And I really liked the characterization of Devon in these two episodes (and the season overall). We were all counting down the episodes until Master Eeko-Dio-Daki died, and yet, they still managed to sell me on the emotion of the moment and how much it affected the young Twi’lek.

Fortunately, it seems it won’t be long before the show returns. With work already underway for Season 2, we might get the next batch of episodes by this time next year.

The Star Wars Celebration Ticket Sale Catastrophe

As of today, one of my biggest regrets from this week was not finding the time to write a story about the horrible experience that was buying Star Wars Celebration tickets on Wednesday. By the end, I was so mentally exhausted I didn’t want to even think about it anymore. Also, I typically don’t enjoy writing stories about fan reactions, because they usually describe how a handful of people with loud voices feel about a topic, not necessarily representative of everyone or even a majority.

But this was different. I was monitoring it live on multiple fronts: our own private chat with other SWNN staffers planning the trip, the main Star Wars Celebration Discord server and subreddit, other Star Wars-related Discord servers, Twitter, and then other outlets like Gizmodo later posting about it. The story was consistent: everyone was mad. Most people thought it was a miracle they could actually get the tickets; others were just sharing their frustrations over a system that’s been getting worse over time.

We knew it was going to be crowded. It’s the 50th anniversary of Star Wars, and it’s the first Celebration held in the US in five years. I already thought the 2023 Celebration ticket sale was a nightmare, and suffered PTSD on Wednesday from the near-anxiety attack I had felt on June 30, 2022. This process was even more painful.

I should say I was lucky to get my tickets, so I will be in LA next year. Even more, I also got a (very expensive) hotel very close to the Convention Center, so the experience will feel all the more visceral. But others in the line behind me were there for five hours and finally managed to get in when there were no longer any tickets being sold. (I myself had to buy individual tickets rather than the four-day pass because, even though ReedPop didn’t acknowledge it was sold out, it never appeared for me no matter how many times I refreshed the website.)

And there’s the issue of scalpers, of course. People who got into the website could buy as many as 20 tickets, which of course meant that many of them instantly appeared on ticket resale websites. Full disclosure: I did buy 20 tickets myself, i.e., five individual tickets for each day of the convention, but 1) I do not endorse it, especially the four-day passes having the same maximum as the single-day passes, and 2) they are all for people coming with me, not for resale.

A Lucasfilm spokesperson confirmed to Gizmodo that the 20-ticket limit was precisely for this case: buyers who want to buy for their friends and find the four-day passes sold out. But why not set a different limit for single-day and four-day passes? That we don’t know. Gizmodo also echoed Lucasfilm saying that ReedPop “will continue to keep an eye on resellers, with reclaimed tickets potentially going to fans who contact them through their customer service teams.” That went around on social media, and many people have probably already been acting as the people’s police. But for whatever it’s worth, this is a tactic someone at Star Wars News Net already tried back for Japan, and after reporting a handful of VIP tickets hitting eBay or other websites for resale, they never got more than a thank you note from ReedPop.

All of that being said, I will add the following. I was very pleased that this year they reversed the stupid decision they took for Japan of allowing previous VIP ticket holders to have early access to ticket purchase. I get that it was to try to encourage loyal fans to attend, since it was a very long travel, but it was very unfair. And of course, I think there are many valid complaints about the user interface of the website, but what can you really do if there is a higher demand than supply? The Los Angeles Convention Center has a capacity for 70,000 people. More than that want to attend the event. Are there many other ways to improve the system?

I am already preparing for the madness that will be getting in line for the Celebration Stage… And I am already writing in my head a piece on how to improve the attendees’ experience inside the arena. After all, both Lucasfilm and ReedPop now have an obligation to ensure those 70,000 people who went through that infernal line have the best experience they can have. First things first: make the Celebration Stage panels available to watch to anyone who purchased a ticket.

What did you think of the latest edition of “This Week, In a Galaxy Far, Far Away”? Let me know your thoughts and suggestions down below in the comment section. You can also send them, or reach out with any information tips, directly via our Contact page.

Have a great week!

Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.

‘Maul: Shadow Lord’ Ends On a High, ‘Star Wars’ Celebration 2027 Begins On a Low