The Darth Maul comic will take Star Wars fans into the unknown landscape of new EU.

At first glance the announcement of the new Maul comic doesn’t seem quite so remarkable. Marvel has been dishing out short self-contained comics that highlight “fan-favorite” characters from the movies. But taking a step back to analyze the approach, this move actually is very significant for Lucasfilm and the Lucasfilm Story Group. If our speculation turns out to be correct, this will do a lot in terms of fleshing out the Star Wars timeline outside of the movies. As most of us Star Wars nut-jobs already know, when Disney took over Star Wars we lost decades of lush content that made up the former expanded universe; since then, many fans have been waiting patiently to see what they Lucasfilm will do with the vast emptiness that is now the expanded universe.

This new Darth Maul comic is unique because it’s actually the first pre-Phantom Menace story to be commissioned since Disney rebooted the Star Wars universe. The comic promises to explore Maul’s rise to power, his relationship with Darth Sidious and how all of that ties into the revamped approach to the character we’ve been seeing in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. It allows writer Cullen Bunn and artist Luke Ross to paint on a canvas that’s essentially untouched at the moment. There’s a greater freedom with this comic to shape and define the Star Wars universe.

Star Wars: Darth Maul #1 is out in February.

For all the latest news and rumors surrounding all things Star Wars subscribe to From The Bacta Tank on iTunes and Stitcher.