Skydance New Media and Lucasfilm Games (a revived video game brand under Lucasfilm Ltd) have announced the development of a new single-player Star Wars game, with game industry veteran Amy Hennig leading the project.
The announcement that Hennig is helming this single-player action-adventure Star Wars game is notable because Hennig’s last industry games project was a single-player action-adventure Star Wars game—specifically one whose development was so turbulent it led to the demise of EA subsidiary Visceral Games before being cancelled by EA Vancouver.
There’s no mention about Hennig’s prior work in Lucasfilm Games’ announcement about the title, except for a reference from company vice president Douglas Reilly about being thrilled to work with her “again.”
Hennig had previously been known for her critically-acclaimed work on the Uncharted series, Legacy of Kain, and Jak and Daxter. She left EA about seven months before EA Vancouver’s Star Wars project was shelved. Though she originally said she was looking to pursue independent development, she joined up with Skydance Media to develop games for “emerging streaming platforms.”
The veteran storyteller has had some interesting thoughts about game development over the last few years. In 2019 she told Double Fine CEO Tim Schafer that games like Detroit: Become Human and Florence drove her to think about how players could easily take part in interactive stories, and in an interview with Eurogamer she mused about a world where streaming technology could reshape the game industry business model to free up creatives.
It’s unclear if this new game will follow up on either of those creative instincts, or if it will be a conventional single-player title. Since 2019, Stadia has shed itself of its in-house game developers, though Detroit: Become Human Quantic Dream is also working on a Star Wars game.
This also isn’t Skydance New Media’s first project with Disney. The company is working on a (still-unannounced) Marvel game as well.