The Star Wars community has routinely grappled with the frustration of canceled video games. While the franchise is known for putting out some of the most pivotal video games in the industry, there have been just as many Star Wars games that have never seen the light of day. Some of these canceled games are more notable than others, like the more recent Project Ragtag from Visceral Games, and Star Wars 1313 that was dropped as a result of Disney's Star Wars acquisition. On top of those examples, there have even been games that got canceled before they really got started.
Star Wars 1313 getting canceled after Disney bought Star Wars wasn't the only game to get axed in the proceedings. There was another Star Wars game that planned to put fans in control of one of the franchise's most prominent Sith: Darth Maul. Battle of the Sith Lords was an action game that had the potential to revolutionize Star Wars' place in the gaming industry, but fate had different plans. Now that some time has passed since its cancelation, it's worth taking a look back at what Battle of the Sith Lords was trying to do, and all of the factors that worked against it.
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In giving fans control of the relentless Darth Maul, Battle of the Sith Lords would have been a much more mature Star Wars game than fans are used to. The game would have included dismemberment and adult themes, really leaning into the darker side of the galaxy. Gameplay would have revolved around stealth mechanics with Maul using his signature lightsaber in combat, as well as a slew of crushing Force powers. Looking at prototype footage, lightsaber combat wasn't too dissimilar to Jedi: Fallen Order, showing how fans could have had that kind of gameplay several years before EA's 2019 hit.
Battle of the Sith Lords would have been a rare Star Wars game to give players control of a character that had previously shown up in the films. Development of the game started around 2010 when LucasArts approached Red Fly Studio to make a game centered on Maul, but there was little actual story direction. Red Fly's prototyping focused on making a Maul origin story that would have followed his story before The Phantom Menace, but right as the studio got started there were complications.
At the time, Star Wars was getting ready to bring back Maul in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which would have conflicted with the story that Red Fly was putting together. On top of that, when Star Wars creator George Lucas looked at the game he wanted it to include comic character Darth Talon, who existed 170 years after Maul did in canon at the time. Red Fly eventually adjusted the game to make it about a clone or descendent of Maul in Talon's era, but it greatly disrupted the game's prototyping up to that point.
Just as Red Fly Studio was continuing Battle of the Sith Lords' production in this new direction, the developer reportedly began to experience communication issues with LucasArts. The company wouldn't sign off on any of the game's big ideas that would allow for full development to start, and eventually stop communicating with Red Fly altogether. The studio eventually learned via email that the game was canceled, further solidified by Disney's subsequent acquisition of everything Star Wars. It was a rough way for things to end, especially when prototyping was just wrapping up at the time.
Almost all hope for Battle of the Sith Lords evaporated with EA's Star Wars exclusivity deal and Disney's grip on canon to serve the sequel film trilogy. Red Fly Studio tried putting together a demo of the game that could be reskinned to better fit Disney's vision with Star Wars at the time, but it never gained traction. There has been some hope of old Star Wars projects resurfacing with LucasFilm Games taking greater control of the franchise's gaming license, but for now it seems doubtful that Battle of the Sith Lords will ever be fully realized.
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