Obsidian’s Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 3 was about battling ancient, monstrous Sith lords

Once work wrapped on KoTOR 2, Obsidian was ready to make a third game in the acclaimed RPG series. Unfortunately, it never came to pass, but here’s what was planned, according to one of the writers.

Speaking to Chris Avellone at Reboot Develop, I asked if Obsidian ever had a story planned for Knights of The Old Republic 3, and it did. Here’s the basic premise, in Avellone’s words:

“When we finished the second one we were all trying to restore our lives back to sanity,” Avellone remembers. “We did start working on the third game pitch, because we always imagined the trilogy. Even when working on the second game, we [tried] to foreshadow what Darth Revan was doing in the second game, and he wasn’t always just ruthlessly and mindlessly blowing everything up. He actually had a larger plan because there was some greater manipulation and threat going on.

“The third game involved you, as a player character, following where Revan went and then taking the battle to the really ancient Sith lords who are far more terrifying than the Darths that show up. These guys would just be monsters. These would have a level of power that was considerable, but at the same time you’d be able to dig more into their psychologies, and their personalities, their history, and even how they dealt with the player, how they talk with the player, the different powers they cultivated and developed, and for some of them like - they’re the ancients, so they’re not just ruling a solar system, [but] swathes of the galaxy.

“So the places you travel to [you’d see] how they left their stamp on that world, or that solar system, or whatever collection of moons. You’d see how horrible that was. Part of that environment would tell a story about that. [That] would be a great, epic way to end the trilogy. The Old Republic are out there. We just didn’t get a chance to do it.”

These ancient Sith lords would be initially mysterious, but they wouldn’t be unknowable like Snoke in the newer films. Avellone thinks the issue with that character is that he has too much mystique, where these evil beings would have interesting and varied origin stories you could uncover. Avellone isn’t entirely sure why the game never happened, but he speculates that it could be down to internal politics.

“I think part of the reason, and I’m just speculating, is that I think there was a team internal at Lucas Arts at the time that wanted to do it,” Avellone says. “So obviously they would have gotten priority over us. So I think that was one factor. Another factor is I think that... BioWare tried to do it a few times. They tried to pitch it and tried to pitch it, and were like, ‘Hey, we’re going to do a third game.’ But it just never seemed to actually go anywhere.

“So I don’t know whether people didn’t think there’d be enough sales, [or if] they didn’t care about doing a single-player game. I know a ton of people who would want to play it, but obviously, maybe those numbers aren’t big enough, or whatever, so I don’t know what the deal was. So [the answer] is ‘I don’t know.’,” he laughs. “It wasn’t us!”

If you want to see more Avellone Star Wars stories, he’s currently working on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, along with five other narrative designers. The official reveal is happening today.