Star Wars Is Officially Fixing Disney's Han Solo

Published Sep 12, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

Sean is a senior writer for ScreenRant and has been writing about new TV releases since December 2023. He has received multiple advance screenings of popular shows and ideated his own coverage read by hundreds of thousands of readers.

Sean is a self-published author of a Western novel. Sean has also written award-winning opinion pieces related to local politics while getting his Bachelor's degree in journalism.

Eight years after the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, Disney and Lucasfilm are finally fixing the film's one lingering problem. Solo: A Star Wars Story was beset with problems from the start. Though it got fairly good reviews, it was also the first live-action Star Wars movie to ever flop at the box office, years before The Mandalorian and Grogu. Solo was a good movie on the whole, but it had a lot of issues that held it back and left a black mark on Han Solo's legacy.

The single worst part of Solo: A Star Wars Story was a specific part of its ending. In the movie's final minutes, Qi'ra takes control of Crimson Dawn and calls the syndicate's shadow leader on a holoprojector, revealing him to be none other than Darth Maul. That scene actually had a lot of promise to tell a great story, and that's actually the problem. Solo made an implicit promise that future Star Wars stories would further explore Maul's connection to Qi'ra and Crimson Dawn, a story many fans want to see, and that promise was never fulfilled.

Instead of a sequel or some other form of follow-up to the ending of Solo, Star Wars abandoned Maul's connection to Crimson Dawn. Qi'ra and Maul interact in a handful of comics, and Qi'ra briefly shows up as the leader of Crimson Dawn in the video game Star Wars Outlaws, but that's all fans ever got. That is, until Maul - Shadow Lord opened the door for Disney and Lucasfilm to finally tie up Solo's loose end.

Maul - Shadow Lord Is Finally Continuing Solo's Qi'ra & Crimson Dawn Story 8 Years Later

Now, eight years after Solo: A Star Wars Story teased a bigger story concerning Maul, Crimson Dawn, and Qi'ra, Star Wars is finally giving that story to fans. The animated series Maul - Shadow Lord is set in 18 BBY, about eight years before Solo in the Star Wars timeline, but it directly ties into his relationship with Crimson Dawn. At the end of Shadow Lord season 1, Maul is contacted and rescued by Dryden Vos, the former leader of Crimson Dawn that Qi'ra eventually replaces in Solo.

Shadow Lord season 2 will almost surely include at least a subplot of Maul helping Vos take control of the syndicate as the first step in reestablishing his Shadow Collective, a group of criminal enterprises and terrorist groups he controlled before and during his reign on Mandalore. Vos will be the figurehead of Crimson Dawn, as he was in Solo, while Maul controls him from the shadows.

There's even a chance that Qi'ra herself could show up in Maul - Shadow Lord season 2 or a future season. Since the show is already shaping up to tell the origin story of Maul taking control of Crimson Dawn, it's perfectly possible that the series will also depict the beginnings of Dryden Vos' relationship with Qi'ra. Qi'ra was sold to Crimson Dawn sometime around 13 BBY, so Shadow Lord would have to move forward a few years, but that's doable.

Regardless of Qi'ra's potential involvement in the show, Maul - Shadow Lord is the first time Star Wars has addressed Solo's ending on-screen in the eight years since the movie premiered. It may not be exactly what fans expected from that ending tease, but it's very similar. Shadow Lord is finally giving fans the story of how Maul came to rule the underworld of the galaxy far, far away.

Maul - Shadow Lord's Future Seasons Can Actually Show Solo's Aftermath

The future of Maul - Shadow Lord beyond season 2 is currently uncertain, but if it continues to be as successful as it is, there's a chance the series actually does manage to get to the aftermath of Solo: A Star Wars Story. While season 2 will likely again focus on Maul rebuilding his Shadow Collective, potential future seasons could show him at the height of his power. With enough time and seasons, Shadow Lord basically wouldn't be able to avoid showing Maul and Qi'ra working together.

Upcoming Star Wars Movies & Shows
Title	Release Date
Ahsoka Season 2	January 20, 2027
Star Wars: Starfighter	May 28, 2027
Maul - Shadow Lord Season 2	TBA
New Jedi Order	TBA
Simon Kinberg's Trilogy	TBA
Dawn of the Jedi	TBA
Star Wars: Visions Season 4	TBA

If Shadow Lord does manage to last long enough, Qi'ra is going to become a very important character to the series. The entire show and its namesake centers around Maul controlling various criminal syndicates. Qi'ra eventually becomes the leader of one such syndicate, which means she's going to, as Maul put it in Solo, work "much more closely" with him.

There are even a few reasons to believe that Shadow Lord could last long enough to get to Qi'ra and Solo's place in the timeline. Shadow Lord season 1 became the highest-rated Star Wars show of all time, and season 2 was very quickly renewed. It's clearly a success so far, and with the sparse and ever-shrinking list of upcoming Star Wars shows, the franchise doesn't have any other series to prioritize above it. If its luck holds, Maul - Shadow Lord can finally tell the story Solo: A Star Wars Story never got around to.

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