Lucasfilm VP Talks About 'Tales Of The Underworld' And 'Maul' And New Direction For 'Star Wars' Animation
Image Source: Cinemablend
The Vice President of Animation at Lucasfilm, Athena Portillo, sat down during Star Wars Celebration with IGN to discuss the new direction for Star Wars Animation. There are many exciting developments where Tales of the Underworld and Maul: Shadow Lord are concerned.
According to Portillo, changes include “the animation, the lighting, the effects, the matte paintings, the lighting concepts, the assets.” Based on Filoni’s response when viewing episodes of the animation, the changes must be a step in the right direction. “When Filoni watched one of our episodes last week, his comment was, ‘Wow, you guys, you are actually creating cinema’. He was proud of what Lucasfilm Animation has achieved with this show,” Portillo said.
Tales Of The Underworld
The fandom loves a gut-wrenching love story. The obvious pairing of course being Anakin and Padme, but also Obi-Wan and Satine. Portillo asserts that Tales of the Underworld will be picking up where the novel, Dark Disciple left off with Quinlan Vos and Ventress.
“Yeah. My favorite part of that is the whole Quinlan Vos and Ventress connection. When the fans saw that, and when he said, ‘I will always love you,’ it blew everyone away. I think fans want to see that, you know, especially since Jedi are not supposed to get involved, but there's always that love story. There was the Obi-Wan Kenobi and Satine story, and obviously Padme and Anakin, and now Ventress and Quinlan Vos. I love those types of stories,” Portillo said.
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Image Source: Cinemablend
Ventress and Cad Bane fans will be able to catch up with them on Tales of the Underworld when it drops to Disney+ on May 4, 2025.
Maul: Shadow Lord
Darth Maul is arguably a favorite villain in the franchise; luckily, killing him off doesn’t generally stick. Perhaps some of the most exciting updates are that this breakout villain star is finally getting his own show, an opportunity to dive deep into this multilayered, complex character.
Portillo voiced excitement about working with Sam Witwer, the voice of Darth Maul in several animated projects. “Sam was involved a lot with the character depth and the lore, along with our head writer and supervising director. He's involved with the character depth of Maul, because both him and [Lucasfilm CCO Dave] Filoni created the character together in animation, and you know, he gets to read the scripts, he gets to watch the whip reels, he gets to watch the pool color. He provides input.”
Image Source: Cinemablend
Portillo addressed Maul’s death, or rather, deaths, as canon but flexible. “My joke for the Lucasfilm Animation team is it's kind of like Michael Meyers or like Jason Voorhees. Like you keep killing them, but they keep coming back. There is that threat that's there, right? I mean, it's Star Wars, right? So Darth Maul has passed away so many times, but he does keep coming back. …We are diving into Maul’s history and we get to jump into that in the stories.”
Maul: Shadow Lord is currently in production with an expected release in 2026. The exact date is not known at this time.
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Source: IGN
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