Concept Art For Canned Darth Maul Game Reveals What Could Have Been

Cast your mind back to 2012, at a time when Disney officially purchased Lucasfilm and all of its assets in a landmark $4.05 billion acquisition, and you may recall Red Fly’s Darth Maul-centric Star Wars game.

Tentatively titled Star Wars: Maul, the spinoff was set to take place long after the events of Return of the Jedi, thereby teeing up a “darker, grittier” story in which the iconic Sith Lord took center stage. At the time, developers at Red Fly pointed to Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham Asylum as a big inspiration – the stealth-action gameplay, the powerful, badass protagonist – before development ground to a halt in 2011.

All in all, the Darth Maul Star Wars game had been in active production for around a year, according to artist Thomas A. Szakolczay, who recently took to ArtStation (via Game Informer) to shed new light on the game that never came to be. There’s also a handful of images included above, featuring a battle-ready Maul, Imperial Officers, and Coruscant.

“Back in 2011, I was fortunate enough to work with Lucas Arts and Redfly Studios to help develop the look and direction for a new Star Wars IP that centered around Darth Maul. It took place in a future timeline sometime after Return of the Jedi and was meant to have a darker, grittier tone.”

Hatched right around the time that Disney’s acquisition was beginning to loom large, Star Wars: Maul was effectively scrapped once the Mouse House brought an end to LucasArts and its production line – Star Wars 1313 was another high-profile casualty of Disney’s record acquisition.

The Darth Maul Star Wars game is no more, now that Disney is strictly focusing on licensed games from here on out. Next to tumble off the production line is Battlefront 2, which is expected to launch for PS4, Xbox One and PC this fall.