Kathleen Kennedy Shares How Star Wars Has Been Influenced By Video Games
Storytelling at Lucasfilm has changed quite a bit over the decade since George Lucas parted ways. The current President of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy, sat down with Empire to talk about how it has changed. Perhaps the most surprising tidbit was her explaining that movies don't necessarily influence the way they tell their stories now. The largest influence, according to Kennedy, is video games.
“It's funny, the more I've got to know how games are written, and that kind of persistent storytelling that goes on in a game environment where you're just constantly building upon a single story, that's much closer to what Star Wars is.”
The above quote makes a lot of sense given just how interwoven the Star Wars universe has become. Shows like The Mandalorian and Ahsoka both pull elements from other eras of Star Wars into their respective shows. Whereas shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi or Andor for example, build out the universe and fill in gaps even further. In a way the current era of Lucasfilm's productions is like mortar, binding the bricks of the Skywalker Saga together.
This perspective would explain why we have seen more video game tie-ins in the newer shows. Like a BD series droid appearing in The Book of Boba Fett, or the inclusion of Fortress Inquisitorius in Obi-Wan Kenobi. We have seen this work in the other direction as well. The Inquisitors themselves were originally introduced in the animated series Rebels, ended up a central part of Jedi: Fallen Order, and will hopefully play a large role in the sequel Jedi: Survivor.
Avid fans of Star Wars and video games should be very excited about this course change. In the past Lucasfilm treated video games as second or third-tier canon, meaning that George Lucas could throw these unique stories to the side. Whereas now, all video games seem to be the same priority as anything taking place in film or on television. This is an exciting new age of Star Wars and we look forward to exploring all of it.
Source(s): Empire