This was the Star Wars video game starring Darth Maul that was canceled after LucasArts shut down

In Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan Kenobi confronted Darth Maul after the Sith apprentice mortally wounded Qui-Gon Jinn. When all seemed lost, the Padawan used the Force, took his master’s lightsaber and sliced his enemy in half. Everyone assumed the character was dead, but the animated series The Clone Wars changed everything. Meanwhile, developer Red Fly Studio signed a deal with LucasArts to develop Star Wars: Battle of the Sith Lords, a video game that initially starred Zabrak himself.

LucasArts gave them a title, but no story direction. The studio thought of creating a game that would tell the story of Darth Maul’s origins, from the time Darth Sidious took him in as an apprentice at the age of 12 to his “death” in “Episode I”. Players should be able to deal with the villain and choose their path: follow Palpatine’s instructions and survive, or disobey him and die. However, George Lucas met with them and gave them the outline of what they had to do.

Lucasfilm then told them their plans for Clone Wars. They went so far as to discuss with Dave Filoni the possibility of integrating the storyline into the video game and creating a trilogy, but that was ruled out as well.

A Descendant of Darth Maul

George Lucas had the idea of Darth Maul working with Darth Talon, but the creator of the saga did not take into account that this character lived 170 years after Maul’s time, so he did not fit into the chronology. So he suggested replacing the Sith with a clone or descendant of the Sith, which would take the saga into an era beyond the sequels - and there were no sequels at the time. The duo would have fought Darth Krayt to punish him for breaking the Rule of Two.

In terms of gameplay, the title was going to feature lightsaber battles, but at the time they wanted to differentiate it from The Force Unleashed, so they experimented with other mechanics. Although they worked on several prototypes (there is gameplay on the Internet), the contact between LucasArts and Red Fly Studio was interrupted. Then they received an email informing them of the cancellation. It is said that the purchase of Lucasfilm by Disney was one of the reasons. In fact, in 2015 they presented a new prototype, but Lucasfilm made it clear to them that they were not interested, as EA had the exclusivity of the license.

The closure of LucasArts in 2013 caused an earthquake and a change of direction. All in all, EA lost its exclusivity in video games and Lucasfilm Games is already collaborating with various studios and companies to create new products.

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