This Is the Way: How the Canceled Star Wars: 1313 Game Helped Create ‘The Mandalorian’

While Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker left the fandom just as divided as The Last Jedi did, there is one Star Wars property everyone can agree on: the amazing Disney+ series The Mandalorian.

Part of what makes the show so great is that it takes familiar ingredients from your favorite Star Wars movies, shows, and books to create something new. But did you know one of the biggest ingredients is a canceled Star Wars game most fans have never heard of?

Star Wars: 1313 is a game that never saw the light of day. Nonetheless, it helped to seriously influence The Mandalorian.

What was Star Wars: 1313?

The never-produced game Star Wars: 1313 was announced at E3 all the way back in 2012. Within a year, it was canceled. But what was this long-lost video game all about?

It was going to be set on the familiar Star Wars planet Coruscant. While we have seen this planet plenty of times, we mostly glimpse the upper levels where the rich and powerful (such as senators and Jedi) live.

The title of the game refers to Level 1313. This is an area of Coruscant far away from the glamorous parts and people, and it is mostly used by various kinds of scum and villainy. Hardcore Clone Wars fans have already seen this area: you can see it in the episodes “Lethal Trackdown” and “To Catch a Jedi.”

The Star Wars: 1313 video game would have focused on the adventures of a familiar character: Boba Fett.

Why was Star Wars: 1313 canceled?

A video game featuring a cool new area and starring Boba Fett seems like a surefire hit. So, why was Star Wars: 1313 canceled in the first place?

The main answer seemed to be that the game died when LucasArts died. Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, and shut down LucasArts in 2012. Star Wars: 1313 wasn’t the only casualty — we also lost a multiplayer-centric game known as Star Wars: First Assault.

Another reason Star Wars: 1313 got canceled might be its identity crisis. Throughout its development, 1313 kept changing gameplay focus (it was going to be like Grand Theft Auto, then Gears of War, and then Uncharted). It also changed protagonists from an unknown bounty hunter to the most famous bounty hunter of all, Boba Fett.

Allegedly, George Lucas kept demanding changes before the project was shuttered altogether with the acquisition of LucasArts by Disney.