Report: Darth Maul Origin Story Video Game Cancelled in 2011 (Updated!)

By: Dominic Jones

Oh, what could have been.  IGN is reporting on a story from the most recent issue of the Game Informer magazine, which revealed that studio Red Fly had been working on a video game that would have told the origin story of Darth Maul.  The style of the game was inspired by Batman: Arkham Asylum.  Given the working title of Damage, the game was originally targeting a 2010 release to tie-in with the introduction of Savage Opress, and subsequent return of Darth Maul, on the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  George Lucas himself is said to have ordered the story of Damage to be changed significantly from the original plan, which would have tied in with the Dark Horse Comic Series Legacy and featured appearances by Darth Krayt and Darth Talon.  The game was ultimately cancelled by LucasArts in 2011, after LucasArts briefly reported purchasing Red Fly.

Wow!  That sounds like it would have been one heck of a game.  LucasArts definitely had its share of problems before being shut down in 2013, and this game seems to just be another victim of those troubles.  Then there's the issue of including Krayt and Talon in the story.  The Legacy comic series is set over 100 years after Return of the Jedi and this story would have been set before the events of The Phantom Menace, so it seems a bit odd to include those characters (granted, [SPOILERS!] Krayt was alive during that period, but he wasn't Darth Krayt yet! [End of Spoilers]).  Plus with the onset of the sequel trilogy, and much of the current post-Jedi expanded universe almost certainly being rendered non-canon, it may have been for the best that those characters weren't included.

UPDATE: A video featuring test footage from the game has been uploaded to Youtube.  It seems the game would have featured Maul facing off with Mandalorians (perhaps its similarities with the plan for Season 5 of The Clone Wars led to the new direction of the game before it was ultimately cancelled.)  Check out the video below.  Big thanks to Karl Kastor in the comments for bringing this to our attention!

Source: IGN

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