Respawn Entertainment will be in charge of producing the next three Star Wars video games while the Star Wars TV shows, Ahsoka and The Mandalorian season 3, release new cast and production information.
Today, Electronic Arts (EA) and Lucasfilm Games are going to continue their successful streak with having Respawn Entertainment at the helm of the next three Star Wars video games (not in a galaxy far, far away). Respawn is best known for their development of games such as Apex Legends, Titanfall and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. The Group GM and Founder of Respawn, Vince Zampella, will be the general leader in charge of continuing this shared relationship with Lucasfilm and EA and Respawn’s successes.
Zampella is not the only one returning to keep the successful games going, the EA/Respawn Game Director, Stig Asmussen and his team will return to bring the sequel to Fallen Order. Maybe we will see more of Cal’s story progress or a new protagonist. The game did receive some flak for the main character being a generic white male.
Perhaps, the team will consider a more diverse protagonist this time around as the SVP of Walt Disney Games, Sean Shoptaw stated, “Building on the previous successes of our EA relationship, this new collaboration highlights the trust and mutual respect shared between the world-class teams at EA, Respawn and Lucasfilm Games… Fostered by the expertise and passion within each team, we will create thrilling original games for diverse audiences across the Star Wars galaxy.” My hope is that we get a Gungan jedi…I mean…what?
The two newer projects will consist of a first-person shooter game and a strategy game. Who better to bring the first FPS Star Wars game to life than Game Director, Peter Hirschmann, better known for working on Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond and other production work on other Star Wars games like Star Wars Battlefront (2004) and the LEGO Star Wars games.
The strategy game will be an interesting one as it will be collaboratively incepted with the new company, Bit Reactor, who has games industry veteran Greg Foerstch in charge. The Bit Reactor team comprises team members who worked on game franchises such as XCOM, Civilization and Elder Scrolls Online. With that resume alone, there is a lot they can bring to the development table of the new Star Wars strategy game.
But this is not all of the Star Wars news this week. The Disney+ series, Ahsoka, will be adding Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Birds of Prey) to the cast. Of course, fans were excited to learn the live-action series for the animated character would be coming as Rosario Dawson was first shown on-screen in The Mandalorian Season 2, donning the character of Ahsoka Tano. The cast already has Hayden Christensen to return as Anakin Skywalker. This would spell the first time the master and apprentice would be on-screen in a live-action production since its animated series in Star Wars: The Clone Wars!
The Australian actress, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, is expected to play Sabine Wren form the animated series, Star Wars: Rebels. The Ukrainian actress, Ivanna Sakhno, will also be joining the cast but for an unknown role. Dave Filoni will be in charge of the series as a majority of his animated characters from their respective shows will be making some big live-action debuts as production begins end of this month. Rumours have been stated that the characters, Thrawn and Ezra from the animated series, will make appearances and Lars Mikkelsen and Mena Massoud will be taking on those roles.
Speaking about The Mandalorian, season three has just been announced to finish wrapping production by March 2022. This could be a good setup if Ahsoka comes out after The Book of Boba Fett or the Obi-Wan Kenobi series (so many series are coming!). There are no official dates for any of these upcoming, highly anticipated series, but it is a great sign that the Star Wars universe is finally expanding its on-screen lore, outside of the films, with success.
