April 10, 2014

Did Disney Kill A DARTH MAUL Game Because Of The New STAR WARS Films?




Apparently, Lucas Arts had been secretly working on a Darth Maul video game at Red Fly Studios, titled Battle of The Sith Lords. Along with revealing the game, GameInformer posted a treasure-trove of artwork from the canceled game. It looked impressive enough and could have been a massive success, and was said to be an open world type game (not unlikely 1313). So why would Disney pull the plug on it?

It's revealed that Red Fly Studios had free reign over the project and were never given a script, that was until the Lucasfilm/Disney merger. It's rumored that because Disney works with EA Games that the project was shelved. There could be other motives behind this as well.



My own speculation is that Lucasfilm and Disney might have movie plans for the character and didn't want Maul's origins or story dictated by an unaffiliated video game company. This isn't the first time Disney has killed a Star Wars video game. That had connections to upcoming movie developments.

The theory stems from the Star Wars game 1313, around the same time it was announced Disney had indeed bought the Star Wars rights and Lucasfilm, the game was suddenly canceled. This was a bit shocking, but Disney could do whatever they liked. It was later revealed the rumors had been true and 1313 was in fact a Boba Fett game. We've been hearing since 2011 that Captain America: The First Avenger director Joe Johnston (who helped co-create Fett) had been pitching George Lucas a Boba film, and possibility even had an outline for project back then.

Soon, after the announcement Star Wars: Episode VII was happening, talk of even more movies started hitting the trades and blogs. They included a prequels for Yoda, Han Solo, Boba Fett and even an interesting Seven Samurai inspired jedi film pitch from Zack Snyder. Eventually there was word from that Lawrence Kasdan (Fett's other co-creator), had been tasked to write the script for the Boba Fett film. Kasdan and Simon Kinberg had been hired by Lucasfilm to pen spin-offs for the studio, that relationship led to Larry being hired to rewrite the script for Episode VII.

At this point we have no clue if there is a Darth Maul movie being developed at Lucasfilm, but we do know that the character is still alive via The Cone Wars. And this game was going to include his robotic body and his apprentice/brother Savage, the group Death Watch and would take place during the rule of the Empire, so post-Episode III. The game also suggests Maul and other Sith lords were at odds with the Empire and didn't abide by the "rule-of-two". Nothing says Maul will be in the new films, but it's very possible he could be apart of the spin-offs.

Lucasfilm went out of their way to first resurrect Maul, and then keep him alive at the end of the series.
Out of all the prequel characters, Maul was the most interesting and the animated series supported that. One piece of art confirmed this game was to take place during the rule of the Empire, with an officer that looks very similar to actor Ralph Fiennes.

Below is the stellar concept artwork from the game via GameInformer. It the artwork also includes many different sith bosses that Maul would have had to fight. There is also footage from the game floating online as well.

















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