One of the most infamous lost video games from the galaxy far, far away was the abandoned Star Wars Battlefront III game from Free Radical Design, which was canceled nearly a decade ago by Lucasfilm despite being almost finished. But if you’ve always lamented not getting a chance to play it, you’re going to be even more disappointed after seeing the early concept art they were already developing for Battlefront IV. As we can see, the game imagined a universe where everything about Star Wars was flipped upside down.
These images, which we first saw at /Film, were shared by Imgur user LukeLandwalker, who has previously posted video footage from the unreleased Battlefront III game on YouTube. What the studio had planned for a followup, however, would have been absolutely insane, because it would have created an alternate bizarro timeline where most of the Jedi we know and love had turned to the Dark Side, and some of the most famous Sith Lords were the keepers of peace in the galaxy.
“Star Wars Battlefront IV was supposed to take the Star Wars storyline into a different direction, with a perfect “what-if” scenario where the tides were turned. This means the characters you see in 1-6 were flipped, such as Kenobi becoming a sith lord, or Anakin not losing his limbs on Mustafar. Some parts of the story went as far as Anakin killing Yoda in a duel at Naboo. Along with that, Battlefront IV featured larger battles than any other Battlefront before. This meant a large portion of the planet was playable on, and boosting its player count into tremendous amounts during matches. This was truly going to be the largest Star Wars game ever made.”
There are so many amazing images here, our minds are pod-racing off in a million different directions. How incredible it would have been if Emperor Vader had been the one to turn back to the Light Side in time to kill his evil son Luke? And as much as we’ve always wanted to see Leia as a Jedi Master, “Sith Lord Leia” would have been the most badass person in the entire universe.
That said, it’s hard for us to imagine Dark Side Obi-Wan, either as a young or old man. But the good version of Christopher Lee’s Count Dooku looks like he would have made for a great replacement.
Just because this game never got made doesn’t mean it wasn’t a tremendous idea, which is why Lucasfilm should put this concept into development immediately. Not only would it be a genius way to explore original stories, what better way to fight Star Wars burnout then by giving us an entirely different version of what could have been?
Which concept here has you most excited? Tell us what bizarro Star Wars character you’d most want to meet in our comments below.
Featured Image: Lucasfilm
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