Is Dave Filoni bringing Darth Talon back to Star Wars canon?

Has Filoni brought Lucas' legacy characters into Canon?

It’s a great time to be a Darth Maul fan. Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord, a new animated series from Lucasfilm Animation following the ex-Sith’s journey into rebuilding his criminal syndicate on Janix (“a planet untouched by the Empire”), is set to land on Disney Plus in April. Even better, Sam Witwer, who elevated Maul from menacing attack dog to Shakespearean villain with his voice acting in both The Clone Wars and Rebels, will reprise his role.

But as excited as fans are to get another taste of Maul, some are already focusing on another possible character who’s only appeared so far in the Star Wars Extended Universe (a large collection of decanonized comics, books, and games that expanded on the original six films known as the EU). That character is the fearsome Sith known as Darth Talon.

Maul’s quest to rebuild his empire won’t be easy. As revealed in the teaser trailer for Shadow Lord, he’ll encounter foes like Captain Brander Lawson and Two-Boots from Star Wars: Shadow of Maul, a comic set to debut in March that will serve as a prequel to the show. However, it’s the appearance of a certain Twi’lek that has fans theorizing about Darth Talon.

In the teaser, we see a pink Twi’lek named Devon Izara fighting off stormtroopers with a lightsaber. She complains about constantly needing to be on the run, and we see scenes of Devon awash in a red light, with Maul’s shadow covering her face.

“I offer you an opportunity,” Maul says.

With these teases in the trailer, and with Devon being a Twi’lek, fans are theorizing that Maul will take her on as his apprentice and shape her into a Sith.

While there have been plenty of Sith lords and apprentices in the EU, Darth Talon remains one of the more memorable. She was originally introduced as a villain and apprentice of the Twi'lek Sith Lord Darth Ruyn in the 2006 Star Wars: Legacy comic series by writer John Ostrander and penciler Jan Duursema. Later, she would become an apprentice and one of the “Hands” of Darth Krayt (aka, the Dragon of the Sith). However, it was only six years after her introduction that she would begin to cross paths with Darth Maul.

Lucas originally envisioned a Talon and Maul team-up in a now-scrapped video game. While that didn’t pan out, the creator of Star Wars plotted to make this duo the main villains of his planned Star Wars sequel trilogy. In Lucas’ version of the movies, an older Maul would become the “godfather of crime,” while his apprentice Talon would have become “the new Darth Vader.”

This obviously did not work out. Lucas sold Star Wars to Disney in 2012, and the company ignored pretty much all his ideas for the sequels. (The concept for Darth Talon as a Sith apprentice may have subtly influenced Kylo Ren’s character.) In the years since, fans have continued to wonder and speculate over what Lucas’ version of the sequels would have looked like.

All of this leads us to wonder: Is Shadow Lord an animated version of Lucas’ sequel trilogy? After all, the new series is created by Dave Filoni, who was not only hand-picked by Lucas as his apprentice but is now taking over Lucasfilm. Of course, this new show was written and animated long before the news of Filoni’s promotion was official, but it’s still possible (even probable) that the Clone Wars director took his inspiration directly from his old master.

However, it’s clear from Shadow Lord’s trailer that if Devon does end up becoming Darth Talon, it will be far removed from Talon’s original creation. For one thing, Devon appears much younger, with fans speculating she could be an Order 66 survivor. She’s also on the run from the Empire, and doesn’t seem too keen on embracing the Dark side.

However, Jedi turning to the Dark side of the Force isn’t anything new, and if Filoni is keen to bring Talon into Star Wars canon, the introduction of Devon (someone vulnerable and looking for guidance) would be the perfect way to do so.

Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord will stream on Disney Plus on April 6.