STAR WARS: MAUL - SHADOW LORD Lands Perfect Rotten Tomatoes Score and Shakes Up the Franchise Rankings

There’s always a lot riding on anything with the Star Wars name attached to it. Some projects soar, others stumble, but overall the franchise tends to sit comfortably in that solid 80% range on Rotten Tomatoes.

Then you’ve got outliers like Andor, which pushed into rare territory with near-universal praise. Now, there’s a new contender stepping into that spotlight, and it’s coming from a character fans have been obsessed with for years.

Star Wars: Maul - Shadow Lordhas officially debuted with a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes, putting it in a position to challenge Andor as one of the most critically acclaimed entries in modern Star Wars.

That’s no small feat. Season 1 of Andor holds a 96% rating with over 600 reviews, while Season 2 edges even higher at 97% with more than 200 critics weighing in. Maintaining that level of consistency across that many reviews is something most shows can’t even get close to.

By comparison, Maul - Shadow Lord currently sits at 100% with 25 reviews. Every single one of them is positive, which is impressive, but it also means the sample size is much smaller. To put it in perspective, Andor Season 1 has fewer than 30 negative reviews out of hundreds total. That kind of sustained approval is on a completely different level of difficulty.

Still, the early reactions to Maul - Shadow Lord are strong enough to turn heads. I personally loved the first 8 episodes of the series! This show is perfect Star Wars storytelling!

Vital Thrills didn’t hold back, calling the series “spectacular,” and said the 9 out of 10 series is like a Star Wars story from directors Michael Mann or Ridley Scott.

Collider gave it an 8 out of 10, writing that it’s “one of the strongest animated entries the franchise has delivered in years.” Polygon went even further, describing it as “Star Wars at its best” and a “stunning and compelling homage to the pulpy neo-noir genre.”

Even the more reserved takes are still positive. Variety noted that the show does “capably move the Clone Wars story forward, but it’s not yet ready to serve as a Star Wars standard-bearer on its own.”

That mix of praise paints a pretty clear picture. This isn’t just another animated side story, it’s something that’s connecting with critics in a real way, even if it hasn’t yet hit the same volume of reviews as Andor.

It’s also not the only Star Wars project to hit 100%. Several animated entries have pulled it off, including Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7, Star Wars: Visions Volume 2, and Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Season 1, each with over 20 reviews.

Others like Star Wars Rebels Season 3, LEGO Star Wars Terrifying Tales, and The Clone Wars Season 3 also reached that mark, though with much smaller review counts.

So while a perfect score looks incredible, it doesn’t always tell the full story. The real test is whether a show can keep that level of praise as more critics pile in.

What makes this even more interesting is that Disney and Lucasfilm were already confident in the series. Maul - Shadow Lord was renewed for a second season before the first one even premiered. That kind of early commitment says a lot about how much faith they have in this story.

For now, though, Maul - Shadow Lord is sitting at the top with a perfect score, and that is enough to get fans paying attention. Whether it can maintain that momentum and truly rival Andor over time is another question entirely.

But at this moment, Darth Maul is having a very good run.