User blog:Regular Guy/Darth Maul story arc to finish out in a comic series

A lot of Star Wars news abound! These last few weeks have been busy with Star Wars news.
 * 1) Marvel Comics has regained the right to publish Star Wars comics;
 * 2) Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca) tweeted some great behind-the-scenes images that he captured while working on the iconic franchise;
 * 3) some new stills for the new animated series Star Wars Rebels have surfaced;
 * 4) And the big ol' casting rumor that Breaking Bad's Jesse Plemon is apparently a favorite for an unknown role in Star Wars: Episode VII.



But it doesn't stop there! Now what you've all been waiting for: THE CLONE WARS news! Since the show was cancelled, us fans have been waiting rather patiently for the animated series' remaining "bonus content" episodes -- Season 6, effectively. The fact that Lucasfilm Animation was still doing voice recording (or scheduled to) right when the show was cancelled, it's likely that they were already starting work on Season 7.

One plot line that was left lingering after the show's abrupt cancellation last March was the return of the Sith warrior, Darth Maul. Last we saw of him:
 * SPOILER: He was subdued and captured by Palpatine; as the Sith lord had "other use for him."

Now, in a report from Newsarama, new details reveal that we'll finally get to see the end to the story arc in the form of a comic book miniseries. In the final year of Lucasfilm and Dark Horse's long and prosperous partnership, the publisher will release the four-part miniseries titled Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir, which will draw on the screenplays from the would-be story arc of The Clone Wars. The comic will be launching this May and is penned by veteran Star Wars comics writer and former editor Jeremy Barlow, with an artist yet to be determined.


 * "All you need to know is that Darth Maul has returned, that he's really pissed off, and that his former master Darth Sidious is determined to put him back in the ground, permanently." - Barlow's brief rundown of what fans can expect from the miniseries.


 * "Beyond that, Maul now serves a Dathomir Witch named Mother Talzin and together they've raised a ragtag army of hired soldiers and criminals, causing all kinds of trouble for Sidious' plans for galactic conquest. There have been victories and losses for both sides, and as we come into Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir, Sidious has captured Maul and stashed him away on a remote prison planet made of obsidian." - Barlow

In the initial report, Dark Horse on behalf of Lucasfilm told Newsarama that the series finale of the Clone Wars being adapted to comics. Showrunner Dave Filoni has since clarified that while this is the end of Maul's story on the show, it is not the finale.


 * "I'd like to make clear that this storyline does not represent The Clone Wars series finale," Filoni wrote. "I've seen some confusion about that online and want to set the record straight. There are additional Clone Wars episodes on the way and one arc in particular marks the series finale in my mind. We'll have fun discussing that in the not too distant future." - Dave Filoni on his Facebook page.

As for Son of Dathomir, Filoni continued, "The story of Darth Maul had become an important one for the series and it was only fitting that we chose him for a comic adaptation. The comics will be based on four finished scripts that were written for Season 6 . These scripts came out of one of our story conferences with George Lucas.

"As they moved through the production pipeline, they became finalized scripts with a great deal of the actual design work completed. The designs you will see, the plot lines, and character development in these comic books are all coming directly from the TV production. I turned over all of the art to Dark Horse so they could create an accurate representation of what we were planning for the show."

Source

 * STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS Final Darth Maul Story Releasing - in Comics!