Star Wars Jedi Franchise May Not Have Been Jedi Games
In an interview with The Guardian, Star Wars Jedi franchise director Stig Asmussen has revealed that Lucasfilm was hesitant to allow Respawn Entertainment to feature a Jedi as the protagonist for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. According to Asmussen, the company was protective of Jedi.
“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,'” said Asmussen to The Guardian.
According to Asmussen, Lucasfilm tried pitching a game starring a bounty hunter or a smuggler instead of Star Wars Jedi protagonist Cal Kestis, which prompted Asmussen to consider leaving the project. Asmussen wanted to leverage his experience with the God of War franchise for Star Wars Jedi, and felt that having a protagonist that focuses on long-ranged combat would have been out of his area of expertise.
“I’m like, well I think you have the wrong person for the job,” said Asmussen. “That’s not my background. My background came from God of War … I’ve never worked on a shooter, and you need a different team to do that. You might as well be asking me to make a racing game. And eventually over time, we built that trust to the point where we ended up calling [the franchise] Jedi.”
Considering the release and success of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and the excitement behind the upcoming Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Lucasfilm evidently caved and allowed Respawn Entertainment to feature a Jedi as the franchise’s lead
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