By George & Josh Bate
June 24, 2026 marks the 15th anniversary of the cancelation of Battle of the Sith Lords, a Star Wars video game that appeared to be one of the most ambitious and bold games in a galaxy far, far away of all time.
Internally codenamed “Damage” and given the working title “Maul,” Battle of the Sith Lords was once in development by Red Fly Studio before it was canceled on June 24, 2011. Red Fly Studio employees attributed the game’s cancelation to George Lucas’ impending sale of Lucasfilm to Disney.
But what made Battle of the Sith Lords such an intriguing game? What was the story? When was it set? What was the gameplay like? What video games was it similar to? All of these questions and more are answered below.
Origins of Battle of the Sith Lords
Development on Battle of the Sith Lords began when LucasArts contracted Red Fly Studio to begin working on a Darth Maul video game for the Wii or Wii U. At the time, Red Fly Studio was finishing up on developing the Wii version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II.
Other than being told that the title of the game should be Battle of the Sith Lords, Red Fly Studio received little initial guidance from LucasArts as to what the Darth Maul would entail.
With a whole galaxy’s worth of stories and planets to explore, Red Fly Studio initially explored the idea of telling Maul’s origins in Battle of the Sith Lords and concluding the game with his death at the end of The Phantom Menace. The game would have started with a 12-year-old Maul training under Palpatine to become a Sith Lord and being made to do acts that ran counter to his moral code. Side quests, meanwhile, would have explored Maul’s dwindling humanity.
Plans for Battle of the Sith Lords changed when George Lucas met with the game’s producer Dan Borth. Lucas provided Borth with his ideas for the game, including that it feature a dialogue wheel akin to that used in the Mass Effect games.
Red Fly Studio were subsequently informed that Maul survived the events of The Phantom Menace, although the team was not informed that Maul was scheduled to play a significant role in The Clone Wars. The studio was, however, clued in to various details of Maul’s survival, such as his robotic legs and the existence of his brother Savage Opress.
Dave Filoni later met with Dan Borth with ideas of how Battle of the Sith Lords could integrate elements from Maul’s arc in The Clone Wars. Given the amount of story material their disposal, Red Fly began to consider the possibility of turning Battle of the Sith Lords into a trilogy.
Darth Talon Changes the Direction of the Game
Battle of the Sith Lords underwent reworking when George Lucas met with Red Fly Studio to inform them of his interest in Maul working with Darth Talon in the video game. This would have actualized Lucas’ plans for the sequel trilogy, which would have pitted Maul and Talon against new and established heroes.
There was a problem though. Talon lived nearly 200 years after Maul, making it seemingly impossible for the two characters to feature side-by-side in a story. Lucas’ response? Make the Maul that is the main character of the game be a clone or a descendant of the real Maul.
The Story Begins to Take Shape
With Lucas’ request that Darth Talon play a key role in the film, Red Fly Studio landed on a new story for the game.
The plot would have followed a clone or descendent of Maul and Talon team up to fight against Darth Krayt and his Sith army. One possible motivation for Maul’s desire to go against Krayt was that Krayt violated the Rule of Two.
Darth Krayt first appeared in the Outlander comics arc published by Dark Horse Comics and was best known for his role in the Star Wars: Legacy comics. Krayt was a Jedi Master and general in the final days of the Galactic Republic, after which he assumed control of his father’s tribe of Tusken Raiders. Following Darth Sidious’ death, Krayt became a Dark Lord of the Sith after he was captured and tortured by the Yuuzhan Vong. Krayt subsequently became the founder and leader of the One Sith, a rebuilt Sith Order that he kept hidden from the Jedi for over a century. Eventually, he reemerged to spark the Sith-Imperial War and destroy the Galactic Federation of Free Alliances. Krayt went on to rule for years until his most trusted advisor, Darth Wyyrlok, murdered him.
The Darth Krayt that would have featured in Battle of the Sith Lords would have departed from the design and story of Krayt in other Star Wars media. Krayt received a complete redesign and was accompanied by several new Sith Lords created for the game, including Darth Koran and Darth VaGhal.
Beyond Krayt, the game would still have depicted Maul’s origins, his apprenticeship with Palpatine, and tie-ins to the Clone Wars. It would have also depiced Darth Plaguies’ death and the rise of Palpatine.
Gameplay Inspired by Batman: Arkham Asylum
Red Fly Studio used technology from their Wii version of The Force Unleashed II as the initial basis for the gameplay of Battle of the Sith Lords but was asked by Lucasfilm that the new game not feel too similar to The Force Unleashed.
Red Fly Studio proceeded to design fighting mechanics inspired by Rocksteady Studios’ Batman: Arkham Asylum. The gameplay would have featured Maul and Talon tag-teaming, much like Batman and Catwoman do in the Arkham games, ragdoll physics, and realistic lightsaber combat. The latter would have entailed that the game feature decapitations and amputations.
The game would have allowed players to switch between Maul and Talon. Both characters would have been accompanied by a probe droid, who would have served as a guide and interface for the player. Maul or Talon could send the probe droid to map an area for them, for instance.
Unlike previous Star Wars games, Battle of the Sith Lords was aiming for an M rating gven the inclusion of violence and sexual material.
Cancelation
Trouble began to brew for Battle of the Sith Lords when LucasArts reportedly stopped communication with Red Fly. Eventually, on June 24, 2011, the team was notifed that the project had been officially canceled. Although not confirmed, the suggestion from one of the game’s creators was that Disney’s forthcoming acquisition of Lucasfilm put an end to the game.
But that wasn’t the end of Battle of the Sith Lords.
In 2015, Red Fly Studio was developing a next-gen demo of the game, in the event that Electronic Arts and/or Disney would be interested in rec-commissioning the project.
However, by the end of 2015, Battle of the Sith Lords producer Dan Borth made it clear that Lucasfilm was no longer interested in the game and that all Star Wars games moving forward would be developed exclusively by EA, per an exclusive licensing deal signed between the companies.
In 2021, Lucasfilm ended its exclusive contract with EA and started Lucasfilm Games, meaning that other studios can develop Star Wars games. Does this mean that Battle of the Sith Lords may see the light of day? In all likelihood, no. A story of this scale would likely be reserved for a show, such as Maul – Shadow Lord, or even a new trilogy of movies, rather than a video game.
That being said, the idea of Maul video game certainly still seems appealing. Everything Red Fly Studio was cooking up, both narratively and from a gameplay perspective, sounded fascinating and would have likely resulted in a Star Wars video game unlike any before.