Recently GLHF was invited to a new preview of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, the sequel to Respawn Entertainment’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order from 2019. The game is bigger than before, offering more options to the player before the game even begins.
We spoke to game director Stig Asmussen and asked about how it feels to have their Jedi Cal Kestis and Respawn’s world embraced by Disney as a part of the wider Star Wars universe. “It’s amazing,” he replied.
[mm-video type=video id=01gw5x8c9m9z0gch8wa1 playlist_id=none player_id=01gp1x90emjt3n6txc image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01gw5x8c9m9z0gch8wa1/01gw5x8c9m9z0gch8wa1-4c9adc96888b84bd47d94e0ae4330193.jpg]
“It’s certainly unexpected, it’s certainly welcome, and it’s not something that I ever dreamed of when we started the game. We were just happy to be working on a Star Wars game, and make something that – from a game standpoint – lives on in Star Wars lore.
“But to see that transcending into something that you can physically hold, like a Lego set with BD-1, and all these other opportunities we’ve been given, have just been magical. The team gets super fired up when we see it. It’s hard to describe.”
But this was far from a guarantee when Fallen Order first entered development – Respawn’s Jedi series could’ve begun and ended with one game, never to be mentioned at a theme park or referenced with a Lego set ever again. That’s not the case though — Cal Kestis has made his mark on the Star Wars universe, so you might think that there’s a bit more pressure to deliver on behalf of the team at Respawn Entertainment.
“Yeah, sort of,” Asmussen explained. “There are people whose job it is to look for opportunities within LucasFilm, and they will reach out to us where they see opportunities to work on, but honestly, we’re just so focused on the game. If we spent time trying to promote or pitch these ideas, we’d be losing sight of what our real task is.”
What’s probably most reassuring is it seems that BD-1 and Cal aren’t simply extra faces for Disney to mass-produce merchandise of, as Stig put it: “when opportunities do come up LucasFilm is super respectful. They share with us these potential ideas and concepts, and they respect that we’re the caretakers of these characters, and they’re going to live in the game first. Those are always good conversations to have.”
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor launches April 28, 2023 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S.
Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.