The close, symbiotic relationship between the Star Wars franchise and video games is well documented. Both were there at the height of the growing development of 3D and the arrival of new, exciting technology. And they both took full advantage, often creating the very techniques that shape the way we consume movies, TV shows, and video games today.
At times, however, the Star Wars video games have influenced and directly predicted the direction of projects within the larger franchise. In the pre-Disney era, George Lucas treated what is now the Legends canon as a flashback. If he liked it, he would use it in his own way. If he didn’t, it was still there and brought down to its world.
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After the Disney acquisition, Star Wars operates in the same way, although it is now controlled by Dave Filoni. The Star Wars video games continue to influence the understanding of the franchise even today, as the two will forever be linked by their passion and love of technology.
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Star Wars: Rebel Assault
High quality CG
Computer-generated imagery was just beginning in the 1990s, but the slow, steady progress it made would play a major role in George Lucas’ vision for the prequel trilogy. Star Wars: Rebel Assault, and its sequel, The Hidden Empire, will create a production workflow that greatly influences what kind of approach Lucas will take.
The high level of CG work in Rebel Assault was just a preview of what Lucasfilm would do later. The level of detail in the locations, ships and planets in Rebel Assault was truly amazing.
The prequel trilogy would go a long way to producing modern CGI for its time, and the work LucasArts did on both Rebel Assault games was very influential. Rebel Assault saw the future, as many future Star Wars projects would use similar CG techniques and the introduction of green screen technology to place players in large areas.
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Star Wars: Republic Commando
Clones Are Good
When Luke Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi first discussed the Clone Wars, the idea of what that conflict would become didn’t become a reality until 2002’s Attack of the Clones. That film also saw the introduction of Clone Troopers, which would lead to the creation of Republic Commando as a tie-in to 2005’s Revenge of the Sith.
Before Republic Commando, Clone Troopers were a tool designed to further the war story. After finding out what was mentioned at the end of Attack of the Clones, Republic Commando officially introduces the Delta Squad, a team of Clone Troopers with a diverse range of personalities and motivations. It was a long way from Attack of the Clones, and the critical success of Republic Commando will have an idea of where Star Wars is headed with these characters.
The emergence of Clone Troopers from the pawnless pawns of the emerging Galactic Empire became the foundation of the Republic Commando. These were strong, complex characters with their own stories to tell. Shows like Clone Wars and especially Bad Batch owe a little to the efforts made by Republic Commando, which was recognized when Delta Squad was reintroduced in the new series of books by those shows.
5
Star Wars: The Dark Forces
Rebellion is Built on Hope
New additions to the Star Wars world were happening quickly in the 1990s. Novels, comic books, and video games were an immeasurable source of joy for fans at the time, and the main contribution to that was Star Wars: The Dark Forces.
The Dark Forces debut will show just how important this era of the Star Wars timeline will be for Disney. This part of Star Wars has been explored and reimagined many times in the Disney canon, as the theft of the Death Star plans would be the basis for Rogue One and the Disney + TV show Andor.
The period between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope was fertile ground for both Lucas and Disney. Dark Forces was one of the first pieces of media to explore that, and the importance it placed on the nascent stages of the galaxy’s conflict was something future creators were happy to participate in.
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Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords
The Complicated Origins of the Force
Before the release of George Lucas’ prequel trilogy, the Force and the Jedi Order were seen in a very broad, simple way. The Jedi were good people who used the Force selflessly, while the Sith were evil and used it for evil hatred.
It worked at the time, but Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II: The Sith Lords will tell a surreal story that seems to foretell the end of the prequel trilogy and the future of Star Wars. In Sith Lords, the Force and the Jedi are not the perfect heroes that the original trilogy tried to paint them as.
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The hubris of trying to control something as big and beautiful as the Force was tempered by the love of the Sith Lords. Revenge of the Sith depicted the downfall of the Jedi Order as arrogance and believing they were superior to the Force, while The Last Jedi will take this to its natural conclusion.
3
Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
Welcome to the Underworld
The ongoing conflict between the Jedi and the Sith shaped the entire original Star Wars trilogy by George Lucas. There was obviously a larger world at work beyond the confines of the Skywalker saga, but no project could have predicted that the dark side of Star Wars would be more than Shadows of the Empire.
First released on the N64 in 1996, Shadows of the Empire was part of a larger multimedia project that shared the same name. The underworld of Star Wars was imagined, but Shadows of the Empire hid itself in a dark, hidden world of spies, mercenaries, and bounty hunters.
Like the Star Wars game, it was also fundamental in predicting how future titles would perform. It exists as a movie without a movie, a novel concept that future Star Wars games will try to emulate. Shadows of the Empire was instrumental in creating the foundation from which future Star Wars games would emerge.
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Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
The Hidden History of Darth Vader and the Inquisitors
When Darth Vader first terrorized movie audiences in May 1977, the truth about his origins would not be fully revealed until George Lucas’s prequel trilogy. Starting with The Phantom Menace in 1999, Vader’s rise from a small slave boy on Tatooine to a mechanical beast was documented in three films.
Even more mysterious, however, was exactly what Darth Vader was up to between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed attempted to answer some of those questions, giving Vader a secret apprentice known as Starkiller. Although The Force Unleashed was made part of the non-canon mythology universe, it had a huge impact on Disney’s canon.
The prospect of a hidden apprentice or some sort of warrior trained by Vader to hunt down the Jedi could lead to the creation of Inquisitors for Star Wars Rebels. In fact, Rebels showrunner Dave Filoni almost brought Sam Witwer back as Starkiller during the show’s first installments, but instead created an entirely new character. The Inquisitors have been a huge part of the Disney canon over the years.
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Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II
Showcasing the Entire Film Trilogy Pipeline
George Lucas’s Star Wars prequel films have had a rough road, but these days, they’re finally getting the credit they really deserve. The children who grew up with them, including myself, have fond memories of their unique world and peculiarities. The very skeleton of the prequels and their production, however, was predicted years ago by Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.
Hiring real-life, flesh-and-blood actors, and replacing the blue and green screen behind them with a digital environment, all CGI was daring. That’s exactly what George Lucas would do, though, when it came time to bring the prequels to life. It was an industry-changing moment, paving the way for future blockbusters.
This oddball production style didn’t appear in the prequels, of course. Decades later, The Mandalorian would be filmed on modern sound stages that featured highly detailed CG environments around them. Dark Forces II was right on the money when it came to how Star Wars projects would evolve over the years.
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