Marvel may be getting the license for Star Wars comics in 2015, but before that happens the current caretaker, Dark Horse, will get to wrap up one of the storylines begun in the canceled Clone Wars animated TV series.Newsarama broke the story Tuesday.
In this last year of Lucasfilm’s epic decades-long partnership with Dark Horse Comics, the Oregon-based publisher will be releasing a four-part limited series titled Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir that will adapt the screenplays for what would have been the series finale of Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated series. Written by seasoned Star Wars comics scribe (and former editor) Jeremy Barlow with an artist to be announced, Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir sees the full-scale return of Darth Maul to the Star Wars universe and into a head-to-head battle with his former master Darth Sidious – aka, the Emperor. Barlow promises to fully delve into the world of Dathomir, as well as some of its inhabitants like Nightbrothers and even a new character called Brother Viscus.
None of this addresses Disney-owned Lucasfilm’s vague promises of animated “bonus content” and Yoda and Order 66-based storylines, but the future is always in motion, as they say … And the venerable Club Jade sagely points out from sources at the House of Mouse/Lucas itself that the Maul storyline was not intended to be The Clone Wars’ grand finale, but rather “a 4-part arc that fell beyond what was already in production.” So there’s that.
The Maul comic is very cool, but it *wasn’t* the series finale. It was a 4-part arc that fell beyond what was already in production.
— Pablo Hidalgo (@infinata) January 8, 2014
If there’s still confusion: the new Dark Horse miniseries only deals with a Darth Maul arc from near end of the series. Not a series finale!
— Jennifer Heddle (@jenheddle) January 8, 2014
Dave Filoni, head of Star Wars animation, later clarified to Newsarama that “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.”
Meanwhile: According to Dark Horse, as reported by Comics Alliance, digital copies stored in their cloud will remain after the handover to Marvel — so no fear there, e-readers.
