With the upcoming release of Star Wars Outlaws, the franchise’s video games are finally returning to an important era last visited in this medium almost 30 years ago. Kay Vess’ story takes place between Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back and Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, somewhere between 3 ABY and 4 ABY.
This era was last explored in Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire, a multimedia event that spanned games, novels, and comics, with a wealth of merchandise produced, including a soundtrack and action figures. The intent was to create a story with all the commercial possibilities of a full motion picture release without actually making a film, in an attempt to reinvigorate interest in the franchise ahead of the theatrical Special Editions of the original Star Wars trilogy being released in 1997, and the first of the prequels, The Phantom Menace in 1999.
While originally Lucasfilm wanted the project to focus on the main characters between the events of the original Star Wars (which had since adopted its A New Hope title) and The Empire Strikes Back, the game designer for 1994’s Star Wars: Dark Forces and TIE Fighter, Jon Knoles, suggested telling a new story between the latter films in the trilogy instead. This was unexplored territory at the time, as novels had covered stories after the trilogy, and Dark Forces covered an alternate prequel to A New Hope as its protagonist Kyle Katarn helped secure the Death Star plans – something that was since retconned by 2016’s Rogue One movie – before jumping forward to a year after A New Hope‘s events.
Steve Perry’s Shadows of the Empire novel focused on what the main characters were doing in the large time jump between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi while introducing a new character, the Rebel ally Dash Rendar. Rendar was a veteran of the Battle of Hoth whom Leia, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian hired to help find Boba Fett and Han Solo, the latter of whom was frozen in Carbonite at the time. Rendar would later save Luke Skywalker from swoop bike riders hired by Dash, help the Jedi to acquire the second Death Star plans, and sneak into the crime lord Prince Xizor’s palace to save a captured Princess Leia.
While much of the novel’s focus remained on the original characters, with Rendar in more of a supporting role for the Shadows of the Empire third-person shooter video game, LucasArts saw Rendar as the obvious choice for a protagonist as his story would interact with key characters, but could also be expanded upon to venture outside of the events in Perry’s novel, making for a new experience that was extremely well received upon its release.
In 2014, two years after Disney acquired the entirety of Lucasfilm, the company announced that the entire Star Wars Expanded Universe – including Shadows of the Empire – was no longer canon, becoming part of the “Legends” continuity and clearing the way for Disney’s own sequel trilogy of films, along with various new comics and Disney+ shows. Some elements, such as Prince Xizor’s crime syndicate, Black Sun, were kept as canon, however, being incorporated into the fifth season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.
Recent comics have told a different story surrounding Boba Fett’s transportation of the frozen Han Solo to Jabba, with the War of the Bounty Hunters arc showing the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate – which was only introduced in the 2018 Solo: A Star Wars Story movie as a successor to Darth Maul’s Shadow Collective – stealing the Carbonite Solo from Boba Fett as part of a trap before the bounty hunter reacquired him and delivered him to Jabba the Hutt, negating the part of Shadow of the Empire‘s story in which Rendar tracked him down.
Later this year, Massive Entertainment’s open-world title, Star Wars Outlaws will finally revisit this era in the Star Wars timeline. The potentially M-rated story is set to avoid focusing on the core conflict between the Rebels, Jedi, or the Empire, so even if Disney were to reintroduce Dash Rendar or the Shadow of the Empire event, the game likely won’t reference them directly. It will, however, explore the major crime syndicates on the Outer Rim, three of which are currently confirmed: the Hutts, the Pykes, and a new clan called the Ashiga. Throughout the game’s campaign, its protagonist, Kay Vess, has to navigate these crime lords, with players’ actions determining their relationships and how each faction will respond to them in turn.
While the likes of Jabba the Hutt – whom developers have confirmed Kay will be able to take jobs from – have been present since the original 1977 movie, Kay and her faithful Axolotl companion, Nix are completely new additions to the franchise. Kay, who is on the run for some reason, is offered the chance to help with the largest heist the Outer Rim has ever seen by Kaylen, a smuggler-type character that the game’s developers have insisted is not Kyle Katarn, despite bearing a striking resemblance to the Star Wars: Dark Forces and Star Wars: Jedi Knight protagonist. From here, she joins forces with other new characters to assist her, including a battle-hardened, trenchcoat-wearing BX Commando droid called ND-5.
How exactly Kay’s heist unfolds – and whether she’ll be able to buy her freedom – is yet to be seen, but with the Star Wars Outlaws due to be released sometime this year, players hopefully won’t have to wait long to find out. While it may not be retreading the same ground or overlapping with Shadow of the Empire, it will be great to revisit this era of the Star Wars timeline once again from a whole new perspective.
Source: Star Wars/YouTube