One Star Wars Character In Maul - Shadow Lord Is Ripped Straight Out Of Transformers

Who doesn't love a little homage? Star Wars has long ripped off — sorry, been full of winks and nods to — other famous films and franchises, some subtle, and others much less so. There's the pervasive "Buck Rogers" influence on the original 1977 film, which also pulled heavily from Akira Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress." There's the pod race in "The Phantom Menace," which features many shot recreations from the iconic chariot race in "Ben-Hur." And there are more niche examples, like Dave Filoni's frustrating insistence that Ahsoka Tano is just like Gandalf now.

Most of the references in "Star Wars: Maul — Shadow Lord" are more general. The animated series, currently airing on Disney+, taps into the rich genre of neo noir, complete with a strung-out space detective, massive neon billboards, and a whole tapestry of skeevy crime syndicates. And then also, Laserbeak from Transformers is in it — only he's going by the name Spybot now.

But that is just Laserbeak, right? The flying-saucer-shaped droid, who flies around as a part of Maul's criminal crew and does his bidding, seems to have the exact same personality programming as the diminutive Decepticon from Transformers. He has the same digital glower, the same sinister snicker, and he even buzzes around and perches the same way. Specifically, Spybot evokes the version of Laserbeak from Michael Bay's live-action "Transformers" movies, and once you notice the resemblance, it's hard to think about anything else.

Okay, "two robots, one soul" is a very goofy thing to say, but look at them. How did "Star Wars" chief creative officer Dave Filoni and supervising director Brad Rau get away with this without some sort of Cybertronian lawsuit?

In fairness, Spybot (voiced by David W. Collins of Skywalker Sound) isn't just a "Transformers" reference. The intention was to make the droid as cat-like as possible, paying tribute to the famous cinematic pairing of mob boss (Maul, in this case) and feline pet. "As close to a pet as Maul has ever had, Spybot has developed a rather interesting tic of talking to himself while diligently working on various vile deeds for his master," his official bio at StarWars.com reads.

Yep, we know which questionable 2010s sci-fi blockbuster film franchise he got that particular habit from.