While the majority of today’s Star Wars talk is obviously going to be about the trailer and title reveal for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, there are still many more exciting developments coming out of Star Wars Celebration. One of which is a lot of information on the long-awaited virtual reality game Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series, a VR game from Oculus where the player is trapped in Vader’s castle on Mustafar and comes face-to-face with the Sith Lord himself. Check below for a look at the trailer and concept art from the series…
At the panel, writer/executive producer David S. Goyer revealed that the main character is the captain of a smuggling ship called the Windfall. “You end up getting shanghiad by Imperial forces and taken to Vader’s castle and the story is about why Vader has chosen you, why he needs you. It’s good to be chosen. Maybe not by Vader,” Goyer said. “We wanted to come up with a new form of storytelling and something that would take advantage of the VR medium,” he further explained, “and take you guys, the fans, and put you in the centre of a Star Wars story with Vader talking to you, addressing you, it’s very scary. It’s very intense.”
The timeframe of the story will be in the early days of the Empire when Anakin Skywalker is continuing his transformation into Darth Vader. Since it takes place at Vader’s castle, the planet Mustafar is going to play a key role in more ways than one. Players will be able to really immerse themselves on the planet as Goyer and the development sought to make it a character unto itself and explore the race of aliens that live and work on Mustafar’s surface. “When we first started talking about doing this project, we were thinking of it being based on Vader but that’s kind of the only idea we had,” Goyer said. “We just decided since VR is so good about transporting you and making you feel like you’re in an actual place, we decided to set the whole experience on Mustafar and in and around that monolith. You’re going to a lot about why Vader’s home is there, what he’s after and explore the backstory of Mustafar.”
The development team also revealed there will be ties to the another VR series Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, explaining that Vader Immortal picks up only a few days after the former series. Additional hints can also be found in the last arc of Marvel’s comic series Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith from Charles Soules, which sees Vader constructing his castle himself.
Some of the cast was also revealed which has some notable names in the VR series. The cast includes Saturday Night Live veteran Maya Rudolph as ZOE3, the player’s partner and co-pilot, as well as Star Wars Resistance‘s Scott Lawrence as Darth Vader. Other voices include Keith Ferguson (Overwatch) and Steve Blum (Star Wars Rebels). It will be released on both the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift sometime this year.
