#SHADOW OF THE SITH MOVIE#

Once again, huge thanks to Haden Blackman taking time out of his schedule to chat with me. What do you guys think about this idea? Is it something you would have enjoyed playing? Regardless, itвЂ™s yet another Star Wars game we can add to the massive list of titles we never got the chance to see.

I would have loved the opportunity, but considering the state of things now, itвЂ™s probably for the best it never came to pass. Not to mention the fact that Haden left LucasArts shortly before Force Unleashed 2 released.ДЇor fans of the Expanded Universe who read all the books (like me), it would have been very neat to play around in a game starring a character whoвЂ™d only been in the books so far. By the time he was revisiting the idea, it was too late. вЂњEventually, I ended up pulling elements from several of the pitches to craft the pitch for The Force Unleashed.В As we wrapped up TFU, I started working on some new concepts and revisited the far-future concept under the name вЂњShadow of the Sith.вЂќ The Darth Maul idea was also briefly resurrected after TFU2, and different versions of 1313 reused either the Underworld or Scum & Villainy codenames.вЂќД«asically, the ideas of using new Force powers and balancing between the Light and Dark was folded into The Force Unleashed games. The only one that had more traction - dozens of design documents, concept art, and even a few prototypes and pre-vis videos - was Scum and Villainy, a bounty hunter game. вЂњAgain, most of these were just short, on-paper pitches, which I wrote. Since the idea was thought up in 2004, long before the Disney merger was even a thought, how come it never happened? Blackman explained: I guess Lucasfilm just has it out for the Solo childrenвЂ¦. ItвЂ™s also interesting that the villain would have been an Solo child, something that eventually happened in the books and even within Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Shadows of the Sith, then, would have tied into the books AND movies while still forging its own path. His first appearance/birth happened in Edge of Victory: Rebirth (2001) and he became a more central character in the galaxy in subsequent books. If you hadnвЂ™t read the previous Star Wars Expanded Universe books, Ben Skywalker was LukeвЂ™s son with Mara Jade, who was born during the New Jedi Order book series. вЂњEpisode VII: Shadows of the Sith would have put you in the role of an adult Ben Skywalker,вЂќ Haden explained, вЂњwho was walking the line between the light and dark sides of the Force, unleashing new Force powers never-before-seen in games or movies as he investigated a new threat to the galaxy (a SoloвЂ¦).вЂќ Back then, of course, George Lucas was adamant that Star Wars movies would end with the Prequels, so the game would have served as the sequel fans wanted (hence the Episode VII title). The timeframe here is also interesting, meaning the initial idea for Shadows of the Sith came about BEFORE Revenge of the Sith hit theaters. This certainly explains all those logos weвЂ™ve seen and is an interesting look at how LucasArts was developing ideas for future Star Wars games. Ultimately, it was a good motivation to generate a ton of different ideas in a short amount of time, but it really just validated what we already knew - the vast majority of gamers wanted to be a Jedi/Force wielder, and the setting, story, even the core features were secondary to that.вЂќ

вЂњWe developed a bunch of logos for this exercise, and sometimes used similar names for slight variations in setting or features so we could do A/B testing (does a concept test better when itвЂ™s called out that itвЂ™s M-rated? Does the time period make a difference if all other features at the same? etc.). To focus test, I basically just wrote up a вЂone-sheetвЂ™ - a brief description of the game, with a bit of concept art and a logo added. In late 2004, we were focus testing/developing a ton of different concepts - over two dozen in all over about a 6 month period. вЂњI know everything about it, since it was my basic concept. Since thereвЂ™s been no real information (aside from the logo) released, I reached out to former LucasArts creative director Haden Blackman to see if he could shed some light on the game: Nonetheless, I was curious to know more about how the developers wanted to tackle the idea.

#SHADOW OF THE SITH MOVIE#

Obviously this was an idea long before the reality of a seventh Star Wars movie was established.

Shadow of the sith