The game isn’t as dead as we thought?
Remember Star Wars 1313? Instead of being all about the Force and lightsabers, 1313 was going to be a grittier look at the Star Wars universe from the perspective of someone who was neither Jedi nor Sith: everybody’s favourite space bounty hunter, Boba Fett. A lot of people were pretty excited about it, but unfortunately when Disney bought Star Wars, the developer LucasArts was shut down and the game was cancelled.
Games come and go, especially for a series as huge as Star Wars, which is why it’s such a surprise that LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy brought it up without any prompting in an interview with /Film.
While talking about what happened George Lucas’ cancelled TV show Star Wars: Underworld, which has a very similar premise to 1313, Kennedy said:
No. No, interestingly enough, that’s an area we’ve spent a lot of time, reading through the material that [George Lucas] developed is something we very much would like to explore. And there was 1313 the game, where there was….
/Film was just as surprised about Kennedy mentioning 1313, and so interrupted to say the concept art for it was amazing. In response, Kennedy said:
Unbelievable. So our attitude is, we don’t want to throw any of that stuff away. It’s gold. And it’s something we’re spending a lot of time looking at, pouring through, discussing, and we may very well develop those things further. We definitely want to.
This is interesting for a whole multitude of reasons. 1313 has been a dead project for over two years now. With the new film trilogy and all of its extended works being Disney’s main focus right now, mentioning a long since canned video game makes it feel like 1313 may be a more important part of Disney’s plans than it is letting on.
While a grittier entry in the franchise like 1313 may not feel thematically consistent with the comparatively more lighthearted and family friendly films the upcoming trilogy appears to be, it’s also worth remembering Disney have already proved it is comfortable exploring darker themes with its IPs.
Just take a look at what it’s doing with Marvel: the super lighthearted Guardians of the Galaxy and Ant-Man films are set in the same universe as the likes of Daredevil and Jessica Jones, which deal with some incredibly mature topics. 1313 being dark and gritty definitely wouldn’t mean it is incompatible with Disney’s plans the extended Star Wars universe.
So whatever form we eventually see 1313 in, be it a game or a TV show or a spinoff film, the project is still important to those currently working on Star Wars. Maybe a Boba Fett game isn’t all that unlikely now?
Lucasfilm Still Looking At George Lucas’ Live Action Star Wars TV Show And Star Wars 1313 [/Film]
