7 Cancelled Star Wars Games We Wish Were Made

Star Wars is a massive, branching media property with countless tie-in novels, comics, TV shows, games and more. Over the decades, there’ve been hundreds of Star Wars stories told, but not all of them made it out of the planning phase.

Star Wars has a long and sad history with video games in particular. The franchise is littered with gaming hits, but there’ve been just as many failed attempts as successes. These are just a few of the most promising Star Wars games that were cancelled before their time.

7. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed III

The Force Unleashed allowed Star Wars players to wield the full might of the force for the first time. Series protagonist Galen Marek was moody, tragic and extremely overpowered, making him an absolute blast to play. The first series entry was well-recieved but the game’s sequel wasn’t. It meant a cloudy future for the franchise that got cloudier with the acquisition of Lucasfilm by Disney in 2013.

According to writer W. Haden Blackman in a Twitch interview, a third Force Unleashed game was one of the games cancelled in this take-over. It would’ve featured a larger open world, the appearance of Boba Fett and a Vader team-up among other awesome-sounding features. The Force Unleashed is a severely underrated franchise, and a third entry for the series could’ve been great.


6. Star Wars: Jedi Knight III: Brink of Darkness

Star Wars: Jedi Knight III: Brink of Darkness was a planned sequel to the Kyle Katarn-starring Jedi Outcast and would have concluded the adventures of the fan-favourite Jedi. It appears to have been in development around 2005 but was cancelled as the game franchise spun off into the popular Jedi Academy series. The existence of the planned sequel was only brought to light in 2008 with the release of Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts, which chronicled the history of the company.

Kyle Katarn is a fascinating character who’s now been relegated to the non-canon Legends realm of Star Wars history. With great nuance and an epic journey, he deserved closure. With the cancellation of the Jedi Knight trilogy, his story will never get the conclusion it deserves.


5. Star Wars: Battlefront III

This title, not to be confused with the modern Star Wars: Battlefront series, was a planned sequel to 2005’s Star Wars: Battlefront II, a third person action shooter where players took on the role of a Stormtrooper. The original Battlefront series is classic and features the world of Star Wars through a unique set of eyes. It remains one of the most popular and well-liked Star Wars games for a reason.

A sequel would have expanded on this success, but despite over two years of work being put into the title, it was ultimately cancelled. Reports on why are conflicting, with developer Steve Ellis claiming LucasArts didn’t want to pay for marketing and a LucasArts source suggesting developers Free Radical Design consistently missed deadlines for development. The only truth that remains clear is that this game was a big missed opportunity.


4. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic III

The Knights of the Old Republic franchise is critically lauded and well-loved by the Star Wars fanbase. The series was developed by BioWare and featured a robust, multi-layered story about the planet-spanning clash between the Jedi and the Sith. It received two main franchise entries in 2003 and and 2004 and was followed up by an MMO in 2011. But between this gap, a third franchise entry was planned and ultimately scrapped.

Knights of the Old Republic III was another one of the many games revealed by the release of Rogue Leaders: The Story of LucasArts. The book unveiled concept art for several characters, Coruscant vehicles and a Mandalorian city but not much more is known about the game. With the enduring popularity of the KOTOR series, it’s an absolute shame there was never a third franchise entry.


3. Battle Of The Sith Lords

Battle of the Sith Lords was a proposed game in development at Red Fly Studio. According to a Reddit AMA by developer Dan Borth, BOTSL was set to follow Darth Maul from a young age up until his demise in Star Wars: Episode I. According to Borth, it would have been an action/adventure similar to the Batman: Arkham games and featured a ‘reverse fear’ mechanic.

While it seems the game never left the prototyping phase, the concept sounds fantastic. Darth Maul is arguably one of the best things to come out of the prequel Star Wars trilogy, and he certainly deserves a larger spotlight. Unfortunately, all development on this game ceased during the Disney/Lucasfilm acquisition and it hasn’t been heard from since.


2. Amy Hennig’s Untitled Star Wars Adventure

Amy Hennig is a game director perhaps best known for her work on the award-winning Uncharted series. In 2014, her expertise in storytelling led EA to hire her for their upcoming (still-untitled) Star Wars game over at Visceral Games. It was set to be a linear action-adventure that featured similar gameplay to the Uncharted and Tomb Raider games.

Initial screenshots and demos showed off the gorgeous Tatooine landscapes of the game and introduced rogue protagonist Dodger. It was extremely promising and several years into development before EA cancelled the title in 2017. Despite multiple demos being produced in an effort to salvage the potential for the project, the shuttering of Visceral Games forced the game’s cancellation. While Jedi: Fallen Order went some way towards patching the big narrative RPG hole in the Star Wars game roster, the loss of this project still hurts.


1. Star Wars 1313

Star Wars 1313 was revealed at E3 2012 to much intrigue. The game was set to feature the dark underbelly of the Star Wars universe from the perspective of bounty hunter Boba Fett as he uncovered a criminal conspiracy. Footage shown off was stylish and sleek and the game was hotly anticipated, but even that couldn’t save the game from being cancelled in the 2013 Disney/Lucasfilm acquisition.

The game was set to feature fast combat, a dark linear adventure and a variety of specialised weaponry. The darker side of Coruscant was reportedly the setting of the game with details on the main story and characters sadly scarce.

In a 2015 interview with SlashFilm, LucasFilm head Kathleen Kennedy indicated that interest for the game may still be ongoing at Disney. While there’s still potential for this game to salvage itself from the rubble, its return remains unlikely.


With the turmoil of the Disney/Lucasfilm acquisition now settling, there’s a minor chance we could see some of the more recent titles return to development. Unfortunately at this stage, that seems to be a pipe dream — but that won’t stop us holding out hope.

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