The Real Reason Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 3 Was Canceled

During a recent IGN livestream discussing The Empire Strikes Back, actor Sam Witwer discussed the sadly-canceled third entry in the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed franchise. Witwer played the series protagonist Galen Marek and he clearly still has a lot of love for the franchise. In fact, he went on to voice Darth Maul in Star Wars: Rebels, The Clone Wars and Solo: A Star Wars Story. 

Listening to Witwer talk about his fondness for the franchise is enough to make one wonder: whatever happened to The Force Unleashed 3? Why didn't we ever get a satisfying conclusion after The Force Unleashed 2's epic cliffhanger ending?

Word first broke that the series was being canceled before The Force Unleashed 2 was even released. At the time, it was reported that the new management at LucasArts was laying off people left and right. Not surprisingly, employee morale at LucasArts was reportedly at "an all time-low." Unfortunately, this turned out to be true when no third game ever materialized. 

During the troubled production of The Force Unleashed 2, Haden Blackman resigned as Creative Director at LucasArts. Not long after that, Disney closed down LucasArts. Another blow was dealt to The Force Unleashed franchise when Disney declared that all of the previous "Expanded Universe" stories, including The Force Unleashed, were no longer considered canon. This was done to clear the deck for the then-upcoming Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens. Once EA became the sole company creating licensed Star Wars video games, the door was finally shut on the future of The Forced Unleashed.

According to Haden Blackman, there were plans for where the third game would have gone. These ideas included Galen Marek and Darth Vader working together and even a possible spinoff featuring Yoda as the main character. Sam Witwer, the actor who played Galen Marek, has talked about a dark "nightmare" sequence in which Darth Vader was brought to trial. Sadly, there isn't even any concept art of these sequences, as the game was canceled before even entering pre-production.

So there you have it. Even though there were preliminary ideas for a follow-up to The Force Unleashed 2, they never got very far. Unfortunately, the closure of LucasArts and the Disney-mandated clean slate for continuity spelled the end of that particular corner of a galaxy far, far away. Since then, games like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order have proven to be worthy additions to the Star Wars legacy. Still, it's hard not to wonder what could have been if Galen Marek got the ending he deserved.