Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 3 Had Some Ambitious Ideas – Including Co-Op

It turns out that a third Star Wars: The Force Unleashed would have truly been something to see.

The original Star Wars: The Force Unleashed game introduced players to Starkiller and his undeniably awesome Sith powers (like being able to crash a frickin’ Star Destroyer), and the sequel helped establish more of his powers in just the right way. But then the series came to an abrupt close when Lucasfilm was acquired by Disney, and LucasArts shut down.

It’s a shame, because it sounded like team was really building up to something big with the unreleased Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 3. Eurogamer recently reported that the game had some really big plans ahead of it, including the ability to explore an open world as well as the potential for co-op support.

“I wanted to build a more open world,” The Force Unleashed project lead Haden Blackman said, “a game that had more exploration to it and a more open-world feel without going the whole hog.”

But that’s not all! Darth Vader actually would’ve been playable. “The one idea I had related to that was Boba Fett being sent after the Rogue Shadow and basically shooting it down,” Blackman said, “and you literally play as Vader and the Apprentice trying to survive and they have to join forces together to work their way off the planet – and you never know when you can trust Vader.”

“Then you find out Boba Fett has been sent by the Emperor to make sure neither of them gets off the planet,” Blackman continued, “because the Emperor has his own plot…”

This info comes from a recent Force Unleashed stream hosted by Starkiller’s voiceover actor, Sam Witwer, who also admitted during the same stream that the struggling hero almost made his way into Star Wars: Rebels. Other ideas passed around for the sequel included Darth Vader being captured by the conclusion of The Force Unleashed II, and actually being taken apart by the Rebel Alliance to keep him “under wraps.”

“I remember pitching a nightmare scene where the trap is sprung as they’re trying to bring Vader to justice,” Witwer said during the stream. “There’s going to be the trial of the century – they’re going to put Vader on trial – and then the Imperial Star Destroyers turn up, Boba Fett turns up…” At that point, Vader’s components begin to shake apart.

But, alas, the game never got off the ground, and the ideas stayed just ideas. “There was not even any concept art that I recall,” said Blackman. “I obviously had ideas about where the story could go – maybe I wrote up a couple of plot synopses just for my own brainstorming – but I knew that I was leaving LucasArts to found my own studio well before we done with TFU2 so there wasn’t a lot of work put into any kind of TFU3 that I’m aware of.”

At least we have the first two games, and that certainly beats nothing.