During an ILMxLAB panel at this years Star Wars Celebration event in London, Batman movie writer David Goyer was introduced as working on a full Star Wars narrative VR experience that focuses on the series most recognisable villain, Darth Vader.
The Star Wars Celebration event is turning out to be a source of exciting VR news this year. We reported yesterday that the ILMxLAB produced VR “experiment” first shown at GDC in March will be available for free on Monday 18th July via Steam. Towards the end of that same ILMxLAB panel, David Goyer, a writer known for his work on the Christopher Nolan era Batman movies, was brought on stage to announce that he’s working with the group to bring a brand new Star Wars VR experience to the world.
Winding up to introduce the project, Goyer lead with the tease “It exists within the Star wars universe, it involves characters that you know or some that may have been talked about but you haven’t seen before and it will be adding to the existing canon.”
“So we’ve got the entire Star Wars universe at our disposal. What planet do we want to be on, what location, what character is so iconic that we need to know more about this character?”
The answer came with a short teaser trailer, featuring the iconic figure of Darth Vader set against the dark, moody skyline of an unidentified, what looks to be volcanic planet. Vader turns and in slow motion makes his way towards the camera, drawing and raising his signature red Lightsaber. And that was it!
This new experience was introduced as “non experimental”, a subtitle attached to Trials on Tatooine, indicating that this new Darth Vader VR experience will be a more significant, more substantial release from the ILMxLAB team than its forebear. The trailer was also presented as glimpse at the experience itself as opposed to a pre-rendered sequence, which means we could be in for a visual treat.
“We’ve got this incredible new storytelling platform that allows you to feel in a way that you’ve never felt before,” enthused Goyer, “and possibly feel for someone that you’ve never felt before, and allows you to feel like you’re really in a real place.” You can see the full trailer below.
No indication as to where, how or on what platform we’ll be able to try the new VR experience, but we’ll keep you posted.