At one point, Star Wars Battlefront II had plans for DLC that was inspired by The Clone Wars, with Ahsoka Tano being developed as a playable hero and Mustafar as a potential map. Battlefront 2's cut DLC would have featured Ahsoka and Asajj Ventress, two popular Clone Wars characters that have appeared in multiple Star Wars series, books and comics. Unfortunately, support for the game was dropped in April of 2020, and no more content has been added since, leaving all of the game's planned DLC on the cutting room floor.
Releasing in 2017, Star Wars Battlefront 2 had a pretty tumultuous lifespan. Battlefront has its origins in the early 2000s, where two beloved entries were developed by Pandemic Studios and published by LucasArts. The original Star Wars: Battlefront II from 2005 was only succeeded by handheld and mobile titles until Electronic Arts and developer DICE revived the series with 2015's Battlefront reboot. Two years later, the reboot's sequel launched to a massive fan backlash, thanks in part to its progression system being tied to loot boxes and micro-transactions, which culminated in the second Battlefront receiving Reddit's most downvoted post of all time. The backlash caused the publisher to make the decision to revamp the game's entire progression system, which led to Battlefront 2 embarking on one of gaming's best ever comebacks.
Post-launch updates brought more playable heroes, character skins, maps, and a variety of gameplay reworks on a semi-frequent basis to Star Wars Battlefront 2. They often coincided with the release of the latest Star Wars blockbuster, and Battlefront 2 received content centered around The Last Jedi, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and more. Between the latter and content inspired by the ninth Star Wars film, The Rise of Skywalker, Battlefront 2 actually already had some additions from the series' Clone Wars era, focusing on the big names from Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith - Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Count Dooku, and General Grievous. Characters unique to the Clone Wars series (Ahsoka and Ventress), among other planned additions, would never materialize, and may even be casualties of multiple studios working on Battlefield 2042, which has launched with a long list of issues despite its all-hands-on-deck approach.
Battlefront 2's Cut Clone Wars DLC - Ahsoka Tano And Asajj Ventress
Battlefront 2's playable iconic characters from the galaxy far, far away are referred to as Heroes and Villains depending on the faction they're tied to. Ahsoka Tano and Asajj Ventress were set to be next in line following the introduction of BB-8 and BB-9E, which joined Battlefront 2 in February 2020. Both Ahsoka and Ventress make their canonical debuts in the 2008 Clone Wars animated film, though the latter originally appeared in the 2D Clone Wars mini-series from 2003, developed by Samurai Jack creator Genndy Tartakovsky.
Ahsoka is the Padawan apprentice to Anakin Skywalker before he falls to the Dark Side and assumes the mantle of Darth Vader. The Clone Wars series, heavily represented in Battlefront's sequel, depicts the eponymous conflict between the clone armies of the Galactic Republic and the droid forces of the Separatist Alliance, of which Ahsoka plays a major part as a Jedi commander of the 501st, the clone Legion at the heart of the 2005 Battlefront 2 campaign. Ventress is something of a Sith foil to Ahsoka, the apprentice and once-trusted assassin of Count Dooku. Ventress would meet her demise before the end of the Clone Wars in a 2015 novel titled Star Wars: Dark Disciple, but Ahsoka remains a part of Disney-era Star Wars, with her own live-action show in the works starring Rosario Dawson.
Star Wars Battlefront 2's Cut Content - Mustafar
According to The Bespin Bulletin, a now-deleted Twitter thread from the game's former creative director Dennis Brannvall claimed that a Mustafar map was on the way alongside Ahsoka as a Hero and Ventress as one of Battlefront 2's villains. Mustafar is the setting for the climactic duel between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Revenge of the Sith. Anakin has already become Vader by this point, and is sent by the Palpatine to end the Clone Wars he puppeteer'd in one fell swoop by eliminating the Separatist leaders on Mustafar. The duel ends with Obi-Wan severing Anakin's three remaining organic limbs, leading to the iconic suit worn by Vader throughout the original trilogy. The planet later became home to Fortress Vader, as seen in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Mustafar appeared in the Battlefront series once before. In the original Battlefront 2 from 2005, players battled in a refinery much like the one seen in Revenge of the Sith. Though Episode III has its most famous appearance, several Clone Wars episodes take place on the lava-ridden planet, so it would have been a fitting addition alongside Ahsoka and Ventress. Especially with Hayden Christensen reprising his role as Vader in the upcoming Kenobi and Ahsoka shows, Mustafar's prominence in Star Wars is likely to continue. The new Battlefront games faithfully capture the ambiance of the series, and there's strong reason to believe that a Mustafar map would have been just as captivating visually.
Battlefront's Cut Content Shows It Still Had More To Give
There is also reference to even more unconfirmed content by The Bespin Bulletin that may have been on the horizon for Battlefront 2. Data miners found indications that Padme Amidala - senator of Naboo, wife to Anakin, and mother to Luke and Leia - was in the works as a playable Hero, and rumors were circulating about a Coruscant map being added to the game. The Jedi Temple on Coruscant was featured in the original Battlefront 2's single-player story, but this would have been Padme's first appearance in the shooter series. Star Wars is chock full of more characters and locations that could have continued the game's run of free DLC updates.
Ahsoka becoming a playable character could have paved the way for future updates inspired by the new live-action Disney+ shows, the most notable of which is The Mandalorian. Din Djarin, aka Mando, could have filled the Jango-Fett-sized hole in 2017's Battlefront 2, and Bo-Katan Kryze could have played a similar role as a non-Force using Hero. IG-88 could have joined BB-8 and BB-9E as the game's playable droids, and Moff Gideon could represent that era's crumbling Empire.
Battlefront 2 had a rough launch, but slowly transformed into a more than respectable Star Wars game. At this point, a third entry is the only way to recapture some of this lost potential, but EA is wasting the Battlefront 3 opportunity by seemingly moving forward with another Battlefield fresh off the heels of 2042. It compounds just how bittersweet it is to see cut content being confirmed for Star Wars: Battlefront II, especially since popular characters and locations like Ahsoka, Ventress, and Mustafar would've been great additions.
Source: The Bespin Bulletin