Project: Mara was an experimental horror experience from Hellblade studio, Ninja Theory. First announced in 2020, news confirmed it's now officially been canceled as of June 2026.
Setting out to use cutting-edge visuals, the curious project was initially revealed back in 2020 with a mysterious teaser trailer showing off an impressively detailed scene. Aiming to "explore new ways of storytelling" that explored a "a real-world and grounded representation of mental terror", we hadn't heard about the project for a long time before it was ultimately confirmed to be have been cancelled.
Now, the studio is set to bring us a Hellblade spin-off in Senua, which will be set after the events of the Hellblade games (our Hellblade 2 review sheds light on most recent release). If you're curious to learn more about Project: Mara, its cancelation, and what the team were originally setting out to do, you can find a recap below.
Why was Project Mara canceled?
In June 2026, developer Ninja Theory confirmed that Project: Mara was officially canceled.
Speaking with Xbox Wire, studio head Dom Matthews confirmed the cancelation, saying, "I suspect some people might ask what's happened to Project Mara – I took the decision to not work on that any further. These decisions are never easy, but I did so to take the opportunity to have all of the talent an expertise in the studio, all 85 creatives, working together to realize the potential of what Senua can be."
Senua is the next game from the developer that will take place after the Hellblade games as a spin-off. First announced during the Xbox Games Showcase 2026 stream, the action-adventure puts a wider focus on exploration, combat, and puzzle-solving.
What was Project: MARA?
Project: Mara was an in-development experimental game from Ninja Theory that was first announced back in 2020. Before it was ultimately canceled, it was said to strive to focus on recreating the terror of mental health issues and be "based on real lived experience accounts and in-depth research."
After the success of Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, the studio revealed a research and development effort known as The Insight Project, which was a collaboration between Ninja Theory and a series of experts, psychiatrists, and professors. The project aimed to create "self-contained, individualized, and absorbing game experiences" to help people control things like fear and anxiety.
Ninja Theory said that it wanted to "deliver a mainstream solution to help treat mental suffering and encourage mental well being." An ambitious endeavor to say the least.
The focus appeared to be recreating "the horrors of the mind as accurately and realistically as possible" to usher in some kind of new approach to storytelling in games.
Project Mara was set to be an Xbox exclusive
Following its announcement, Project Mara was expected to come to the Xbox Series X in what would have been an Xbox exclusive release.
Project Mara trailer
Upon its reveal, the game received a terrifying teaser trailer which appeared to feature award-winning Hellblade actor Melina Juergens in the titular role as Mara. The teaser showed off some impeccably rendered slices of what looks like a research facility, soundtracked by heavy breathing and close-ups of documents detailing a study of Mara’s brain function and mental health progress. The trailer tagline is "I can't tell what's real anymore" and at the end of the trailer, we can see Mara turn to face some sort of antagonistic force in the darkness.
It's very hard to grasp what the premise of the game is from this disorienting trailer, but it seems to follow a mental health patient struggling with her illness. The game presents the facility in a somewhat antagonistic way but it's yet to be revealed whether this is the reality of the situation or not.
Project Mara gameplay details
Alongside the first Project: Mara trailer, Ninja Theory released a development diary detailing the intended gameplay experience and development path the studio was taking.
With Ninja Theory focusing on small-scope development cycles, similar to their approach with Hellblade, which was made by a small team of 20 developers, the studio referred to this as the Dreadnought approach: where the company was splitting into a set of small teams to work on upcoming titles – ensuring the studio could mitigate risk and take bigger creative swings.
Former Ninja Theory creative director Tameem Antoniades spoke about The Insight Project in the past, which seeks to use the environmental control of game design and adapt it into a push towards mental wellbeing for players by allowing users to engage with and overcome their fears.
There are a couple of short scenes where you can see clips from projects tied to this, including a person in a rowboat with a heart monitor, somebody running on a treadmill whilst being tracked and a VR project where the player interacts with an avatar. Ninja Theory wanted to explore the "new control interfaces and the psychology of play," which had much to do with Project: Mara.
Antoniades noted that Project: Mara would have only featured one character and one location – an area which had been meticulously recreated from the real-world through new photogrammetry techniques, with Ninja Theory aiming for photorealistic presentation.
While Project Mara is no longer in development, you can see what's ahead with our upcoming horror games roundup.
