Respawn Entertainment Says Lucasfilm Treats Jedi As A Holy Grail

Respawn Entertainment is gearing up to release another heavy-hitting video game title into the marketplace. I’m referring to the sequel of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. With Star Wars Jedi: Survivor set to launch later this month, more marketing and interviews are coming out in an effort to hype up the release. One of the more recent interviews revealed that we almost didn’t see Cal as a Jedi within the video game series. That was one major battle that Respawn Entertainment had to fight for when working with Lucasfilm. 

Stig Asmussen, the director behind the series, recently had an interview with The Guardian. During their conversation, it was unveiled that Stig almost walked away from the entire production because of Lucasfilm’s efforts to refuse Jedi being used within the game. It does make sense; being a brand new IP and bringing out a new Jedi with a unique story might have been worrisome for the company. However, Stig continued to fight for the rights in order to tell the story they wanted to see play out in the game. 

According to Stig, the meeting came to a halt when they revealed they wanted to do a third-person action-adventure game with Jedi and lightsabers. Lucasfilm wasn’t keen on having a Jedi and was very curious why the studio needed one for the game. Instead, they were pushing for Cal to be a force user rather than a Jedi. Stig found that Jedi to Lucasfilm was essentially the holy grail, and it didn’t look like this production was going to move forward with Cal being a Jedi or perhaps not even feature anything regarding a Jedi within the storyline. 

We wanted to do third-person action adventure, and we wanted to have a Jedi with lightsabers. And then they’re like – wait. At that point, to Lucasfilm, the Jedi are like the holy grail. I mean, it’s something that they’re probably the most protective of, except for maybe Baby Yoda. So we had to kind of earn that. We had to go through a whole process of, why do you want it to be a Jedi? What do you want to do with the Jedi? They were really uncomfortable with Jedi, and they said, ‘Let’s reset this. Let’s call this character a force user.

Stig Asmussen – The Guardian

Fortunately, the folks over at Respawn Entertainment managed to convince Lucasfilm to allow the use of Jedi. Thankfully, their efforts paid off as the game went on to become a massive success, with fans eagerly awaiting the next installment’s release. Currently, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is set to launch on April 28, 2023. When the game does launch into the marketplace, you’ll find it for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC platforms. This storyline will pick up five years after Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, where Cal is still fighting back against the Galactic Empire as they attempt to kill off the last remaining Jedi.