Star Wars Celebration Europe has been chock full of pleasant surprises and reveals. It was finally confirmed that the fourth Star Wars: Battlefront DLC pack will be based around the events in Rogue One. We were told that Rebels, season 3 will have an old favorite placed back into the official Star Wars canon. But the biggest news, beyond the peaks at Rogue One, is the VR movie focused on Darth Vader, written by genre aficionado David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, Blade). The “narrative experience” will be set in a persistent world where, according to Goyer, “You are the visitor in this story that is happening in and around you, and to a certain extent you might even have some effect on. You can pick up things, you can open things. You can push things, you can walk. You can touch characters.”
According to The Verge, the movie, created by Industrial Light & Magic’s VR studio xLab, should be out in a few years, and will be a whole new Darth Vader story and official Star Wars canon. The idea of actually impacting a story and visiting the world which continues to live and breath while we’re away from our VR headsets is certainly interesting, and Goyer sees unlimited potential in the new genre.
“The difference between cinema and television and VR — particularly with the fidelity that [the xLab] team is working on, is that you really feel like you there. The sense of presence isn’t just a buzzword,” Goyer said. “And it’s surprisingly very emotional. It can make you sad, and make you lean in, and make you feel for a character in a way you haven’t before. In a way that you can’t really do in any other medium. And it can scare you.”
“I’m really, really excited for a year or two, whenever it happens, and you guys get to experience what we’re working on. It’s pretty mindblowing.”
Of course, until we’re hearing Darth breathing down our necks only for us to turn around and see the mask staring us in the eyes, it all seems too good to be true. VR has made strides in recent years, but could it possibly change the moviegoing experience?
That’s a question to ponder. So in the meantime, get ready to experience one of xLab’s first projects, Trials on Tatooine, which will be released for free on Steam this Monday, July 18th.
(Via The Verge)
