We all know the story about that canceled Darth Maul video game, but we had no idea it was going to look this good.
Things are a little slow on the Star Wars gaming front right now. Star Wars Battlefront, the franchise’s main new canon title, recently wrapped up its last DLC and we’ve got a hefty wait on our hands before Disney begins its Star Wars gaming expansion in earnest. Of course, once that expansion does kick in, there are going to be some amazing titles to look forward to, but until that happens, we’ll indulge ourselves in a spot of speculation about ‘what could have been’ back in the old LucasArts days.
There was a time when LucasArts was churning out so many Star Wars gaming ideas that they had to pick and choose which ones got funding. Unfortunately, that meant we missed out on some titles that actually sounded like they had a lot of potential – a dark side sequel to Rogue Squadron called Dark Squadron, anyone? Missed opportunities like this are hard enough to swallow, but when a project actually makes it into production only to get canceled because of a corporate takeover, it can feel like a real knee to the groin.
That’s what happened with the Darth Maul action-adventure game, which was in production at the time of the Disney takeover. When LucasArts was scrapped, the Darth Maul game went the same way. Since then, we’ve been learning more and more about the game and its post-Return of the Jedi setting. Now, Thomas Szakolczay, a designer on the project has released a treasure trove of concept art, featuring a character set that wouldn’t look out of place at a Marilyn Manson gig in the Mos Eisley Cantina.
“Back in 2011, I was fortunate enough to work with Lucas Arts and Redfly Studios to help develop the look direction for a new Star Wars IP that centered around Darth Maul,” said Szakolczay on his Artstation page. “It took place in a future time line sometime after Return of the Jedi and was meant to have a darker, grittier tone. Unfortunately the project was conceived around the same time as the Disney acquisition. it was cancelled after 1 year of development. Definitely dream of getting the opportunity to work on another Star Wars related project, so much fun!”
A couple of years ago, there was hope that the game could be revived, but given Disney’s tight management of the post-ROJ era, that would seem like a long shot without some serious re-writes to the game’s story. For now, we’ll just have to satisfy ourselves with seeing Maul on Star Wars Rebels, and in his upcoming Marvel comic series.
Check out more art and videos from the Darth Maul game, here.
