“Not Worth Engaging With” ‘Star Wars Outlaws’ Director Casually Dismisses Fan Concerns

in Star Wars

Promotional image for the game "Star Wars Outlaws." Features a large planet in the background with the game's logo, and two characters in the foreground—a humanoid wearing armor and a mask, and another in casual attire holding a small creature. Spaceships and mountainous terrain are visible.

Credit: Ubisoft/LucasFilm Games

At this point in pop culture, being a Star Wars fan means constantly being offended by something. It could be that canon has broken, or it could be lesbian space witches, but there’s always something. But as hair-trigger as fans might be, it’s not great to hear that the executives in charge of one of the biggest Star Wars projects in years are pretty uninterested in discussing issues with fandom.

Kay Vess and Nix running in 'Star Wars Outlaws'
Credit: Massive Entertainment / Ubisoft / Lucasfilm Games

The Star Wars fandom is one of the more passionate groups of enthusiasts out there on the internet, which is really saying something. It also has a tendency to get toxic and attack people involved in the franchise, particularly if women, POC, or LGBTQIA+ (or all three) individuals are involved. Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, no stranger to gender-based criticism, caught flak earlier this year when she asserted that:

“Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation — it’s terrifying. I think Leslye has struggled a little bit with it. I think a lot of the women who step into Star Wars struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.”

Related: Disney Cancels ‘Star Wars’ Sequel After Four Year Completion

Three characters from Disney's "The Acolyte" are depicted with dramatic lighting in Volume 2. The central character wields a glowing knife, flanked by individuals holding blue and green lightsabers. The background features a warm, dimly lit environment.
Credit: Disney+

But while women involved in the creative work of Star Wars get an arguably oversized share of the criticism in recent days, pretty much anyone who works on a project set in George Lucas’ galaxy far, far away gets an earful.

At this point, Lucasfilm not having done sufficient press for an upcoming new Disney+ show is proof positive for fans that it must be terrible or that executives dislike it for being insufficiently “woke.” In other words, you can get called woke for doing something or not doing something or for just not promoting something enough.

Maybe it is actually not that surprising that some of the people behind major projects (and not just Star Wars ones) are getting fed up and don’t want to argue with fans anymore. In a new feature at The Washington Post, Massive Entertainment creative director Julian Gerighty outlined his plans for Star Wars Outlaws, the hugely anticipated open-world game from Ubisoft.

Kay Vess and Nix in 'Star Wars: Outlaws'
Credit: Massive Entertainment / Ubisoft / Lucasfilm Games

Gerighty says of the upcoming game, which is set between The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983):

“What we did with the very small core team when we kicked things off was reconnect with what Star Wars meant to us … that feeling when I had that VHS tape that I wore out and playing with the Kenner toys. Before the internet, before streaming services, before sequels and prequels and TV shows, before you could find Star Wars everywhere, what was my imagination in love with? It was the universe … sorry, I’m not allowed to say universe. It was the galaxy of substance, a galaxy where everything was possible.”

However, Julian Gerighty was not afraid to dismiss backlash against Kay Vess, the central character in Star Wars Outlaws. Similar to many female video game protagonists in recent games, Vess has been criticized by some oddballs for not being “feminine” enough, and the game director is not having it.

Gerighty said, “Kay [Vess] is meant to be approachable, a petty thief who ends up barreling through this story, making bad decisions and centered with a lot of humor, humility and toughness, that’s what’s important to me. And she’s beautiful, come on.”

Kay Vess smiling in 'Star Wars Outlaws'
Credit: Massive Entertainment / Ubisoft / Lucasfilm Games

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He continued, “It makes no sense to me, and it’s not worth engaging with. If you engage with bad-faith people, there’s no nuance and no possibility of real dialogue. So all we can do is make the best game possible.”

Star Wars Outlaws is a third-person game primarily featuring Kay Vess (Humberly González), a “resourceful underdog” in the mold of Han Solo, who undertakes a number of missions alongside her companion creature Nix (Dee Bradley Baker).

Reportedly, criminal organizations like the Ashiga Clan, Crimson Dawn, Hutt Cartel, and Pyke Syndicate will be a major component of the game, while Imperial Forces essentially act as watchdogs to monitor Vess’s actions.

Star Wars Outlaws will be released this month for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S. It is unlikely any of the culture wars around the franchise will have even slowed down when it does.

Do you think Star Wars creators have a responsibility to listen to bad-faith fans?

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