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With one episode down and 11 more premiering weekly, The Clone Wars’ most-anticipated season is underway. We’ve already met the Bad Batch, a special group of genetically mutated Clone troopers that are perfect for rough, precarious missions. And the trailers showed we have a lot to look forward to. Including the newest hint that Maul’s bringing some friends with him when he appears later this season. Spoilers ahead for upcoming plot points of The Clone Wars Season 7.

Maul in Episode "Twilight of the Apprentice: Part I and II" in 'Star Wars Rebels,' which takes places years after 'The Clone Wars.'
Maul in Episode “Twilight of the Apprentice: Part I and II” in ‘Star Wars Rebels,’ which takes places years after ‘The Clone Wars’ | Disney XD via Getty Images

What has Maul been up to since Season 5?

Maul has been around since day one. Once a Sith apprentice under Darth Sidious (aka Palpatine), Darth Maul killed Qui-Gon Jinn in front of Obi-Wan Kenobi. As a response, Obi-Wan gave him an equally hard fight. And in the end, he sliced the Sith Lord in half.

However, that wasn’t the end of Maul. He showed up years later in The Clone Wars’ Season 3 as a crazed man with massive, robotic spider legs and only hate that fueled him. His brother, Savage Oppress, and Mother Talzin saved him, and once he was sane again (with regular legs) he planned to not only destroy Obi-Wan but also gain whatever power he could. Because that’s what the galaxy owed him, in his mind. 

At the end of Season 5, however, Palpatine found out about Maul’s plan to train his brother as an apprentice and extort the planet Mandalore for power. The last we saw of them, it sounded like Palpatine was going to use Maul as a pawn. But we know from the spin-off, published series Son of Dathomir that Maul escapes his clutches and returns to Mandalore. He takes over power of the planet again and uses Almec as a puppet leader. 

A new emoji teases the return of Mauldalorians

When The Clone Wars premiered, Disney+ sent out a tweet showing all the emojis that belong to different hashtags, like a little Ahsoka follows the hashtags #TheCloneWars and #Ahsoka. There are ones for #Anakin, #BoKatan, #CaptainRex, #ObiWan and more. At the end of the tweet, they wrote, “Oh, and there might just be one more emoji to uncover… Has anyone found it?”

It didn’t take long for fans to find out that the secret, new hashtag and emoji combo belonged to #TheMauldalorian. At first glance, that looks like “Mandalorian,” but no. It’s a combo of Maul and Mandalorian: Mauldalorian. They’re also known as Mandalorian super commandos and served Maul once he became the leader of Death Watch after he killed their actual leader, Pre Vizsla. This is how he got the Darksaber and why Bo-Katan left the extremist group. 

With this new hashtag, it nearly confirms that these red-armored Mandalorian commandos will return when Maul does. Polygon points out that it’s probably Gar Saxon, who fans saw in Star Wars Rebels and who show up in the Son of Dathomir comics as well. 

Mandalore becomes a huge battleground this season on ‘The Clone Wars’

Maul’s return to Mandalore is why Bo-Katan seeks Ahsoka out, to help defeat him and the Death Watch members who are still serving him. She wants her planet back, which leads to the Siege of Mandalore and the major duel between Ahsoka and Maul at the end of this season.

This is most likely going to be the bulk of Maul’s purpose in Season 7 since it’s only going to be 12 episodes and there are a few other arcs they need to get to as well. But this is likely the final arc and season finale since the Siege of Mandalore ends because of Order 66. The Jedi purge brings about the end of the Clone Wars and the start of the Empire. 

The Clone Wars Season 7 might be shorter than usual, but it’s going to bring some great moments and characters together.

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