Old concept art gives a peek at what the Darth Maul game could have been

Video game concepts come and go, but the ones that really linger in the consciousness are the canceled titles that draw on a very well known franchise. Thus, the legacy of a Darth Maul video game endures.

The semi-mute Sith Lord from Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was the subject of a 2010 project that went nowhere. Red Fly Studio had gotten the assignment to build a game around the horn-headed bad mofo, after capably handling the Wii port of Star Wars: The Force Unleaded 2. LucasArts, typically, scrapped its development without much of an explanation why, as it did with Battlefront 3 and 1313 before Disney came in with adult supervision, in the form of an exclusive deal with Electronic Arts.

Thomas Szakolczay

Thomas Szakolczay

Thomas Szakolczay

Here are some concepts for what was apparently titled Star Wars: Maul at some point. Game Informer scrounged them up over the weekend. The brooding, Sithy characters are the Emperor and Darth Vaghal, and the white-clad woman, is “Nexus-Wan.” The concept art is the work of Thomas Szakolczay, an artist who worked on the game and posted them to the art community website ArtStation. Plenty more is at that link.

Star Wars: Maul, if that really was its title, ended up binned. 1313, announced before E3 2012, isn't really dead but isn't really in development either. EA controls the exclusive license to make Star Wars video games, and Amy Hennig, the Uncharted writer and creative director, is working on a title for Visceral Games.

Perhaps some of the DNA of Maul and 1313 will be found in that project. And perhaps we will find out more about it this year.