Eager Star Wars fans have a lot of exciting things happening for them very soon. Not only do they have new series releasing on Disney Plus, including Tales of the Empire and The Acolyte, but they’ll soon have new games to play. Star Wars Outlaws is set to release in August 2024, and it tells an original story that follows scoundrel Kay Vess and her companion Nix during the time between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. For many fans, this is an important timeframe between the original trilogy films, especially for those who followed the many stories of the Expanded Universe (EU), better known today as Star Wars Legends.
One of the biggest EU stories from the mid-late 90s was the multimedia event known as Shadows of the Empire. This included a novel by Steve Perry, comics from Dark Horse, and the Nintendo 64 game of the same name. Shadows of the Empire took place in the exact same time period that Star Wars Outlaws will happen. Despite it not being part of the new official canon set by Disney for Star Wars, is it possible that we can see elements from Shadows of the Empire in Outlaws? Here are a few ideas of what is reasonable and possible to be included in Ubisoft and Massive Games’ upcoming Star Wars game.
The Black Sun Syndicate
Star Wars Outlaws has a major focus on the underworld, the people that are outside the Galactic Civil War between the Rebels and the Empire. Kay Vess will be navigating her way through the story by working for some of the biggest and most dangerous gangs in the galaxy. Trailers for the game have shown shady groups like the Hutts, Crimson Dawn, and the Pyke Syndicate. But one major faction that was active during the Shadows of the Empire storyline was Black Sun.
Led by the gang lord Prince Xizor during this period, Black Sun was a criminal syndicate involved in many forms of illegal activity with no allegiance to either the Rebellion or the Empire. The influence of Black Sun was so massive that Prince Xizor came close to being a rival to Darth Vader, competing for favor from Emperor Palpatine. Xizor is also a Falleen, a reptilian species that first appeared in the Shadows of the Empire novel. Since then, in the new Disney canon, both the Falleen species and Black Sun have appeared in episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars and other media that followed.
Considering that the species and organization have been included within the current canon, it would be a missed opportunity not to include a faction that has a long history with the franchise. The timeframe of the story for Star Wars Outlaws matches up perfectly for Black Sun to be a major player. Even if not included in the main game, it’s still possible that an expansion for Outlaws could include Black Sun as a new faction for Kay to undertake missions for or stand against. This also opens up the opportunity to bring in Prince Xizor into the new canon as well, given each organization Kay will come across has a leader that she will interact with. It’s almost too good for Ubisoft not to explore and utilize it in some way.
Iconic Location Easter Eggs
During the Shadows of the Empire storyline, Luke Skywalker makes a trip back to Tatooine following his duel with Darth Vader on Bespin. He goes to the abandoned hut of Obi-Wan Kenobi out in the desert. It’s there where he learns to make his new lightsaber before Return of the Jedi. He also happens to run into a smuggler friend of Han Solo named Dash Rendar, sent by Princess Leia to save his life.
Star Wars Outlaws will take players to multiple planets in the Outer Rim, which includes planets like Tatooine and others from the films. Kay Vess will be able to travel to various locations within the planets, either on foot or by speeder. Within those areas, it may be possible we’ll be able to venture out to locations that are iconic and key points of interests that Star Wars fans will recognize. If we’re on Tatooine, can we go look for Ben Kenobi’s old hut, or even see if we can find the old Lars Homestead?
From the gameplay trailers that Ubisoft has shared, we already know that we’ll be able to work with Jabba the Hutt, which means we’ll definitely be going to Jabba’s palace and the Dune Sea. Does this mean we’ll be able to go to Mos Eisley and Mos Espa too? All of these locations are landmarks that are central to multiple Star Wars stories, including Shadows of the Empire, for many reasons. And with the plot of Outlaws and Shadows of the Empire overlapping in time, there’s almost no reason why we shouldn’t see these iconic Tatooine locations.
Swoop Bikes of the Time
An interesting part of Star Wars that was also first introduced through Shadows of the Empire were the Swoop Bikes. Unlike the speeders we see in Return of the Jedi and other stories, Swoop bikes are more powerful and faster than typical speeders. They were often used in racing on planets like Tatooine, Coruscant, and others. Races would happen between rival organizations that allowed citizens to place bets on them, but they were also utilized in criminal activity as well. Swoop bikes may have been introduced in Star Wars EU storylines, but they were also made canon through multiple projects afterward, including some of the films and Disney Plus series that came later.
Kay Vess will have her own speeder that we’ll be able to customize in Star Wars Outlaws. How far that customization will go is unknown, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t see some variation of a Swoop bike for Kay to use. But that also doesn’t mean we won’t see various enemies using Swoop bikes that Kay might find herself facing off against. Gangs that resided on Tatooine and worked for various groups like the Hutts would use Swoop bikes regularly, which might be a common sight within Outlaws.
Familiar Characters Across the Galaxy?
It might not be a safe bet to say players will come across fan-favorite characters like Luke Skywalker or Princess Leia in Star Wars Outlaws. But there are other familiar faces that Star Wars fans could possibly run into from this period of time in the Star Wars galaxy. The plot of Shadows of the Empire definitely included original trilogy heroes in some way, but it also introduced new characters and implemented other secondary ones from the original movies. Some of those characters included Dash Rendar, Guri, Prince Xizor, and even fan favorites like IG-88 and Boba Fett.
A major plot point in Shadows of the Empire was the group trying to find and rescue Han Solo from his trip to Jabba the Hutt. Luckily for us, Kay Vess will cross paths with Jabba and see the captured Han Solo in his carbon-frozen state. Although Luke, Leia, and Chewbacca might not get there for a while, other individuals have swung by before the events of Return of the Jedi. It would be interesting to see some of these characters in their element, or to hear of their exploits that reference events that took place in Shadows of the Empire. Imagine if Kay Vess was working with Jabba the Hutt and happened to cross paths with Boba Fett, who only recently delivered the carbonite Han Solo to Jabba not that long beforehand. Maybe someone could mention how his trip to deliver the prize was dangerous because of all the other bounty hunters trying to stop him, which is exactly the series of events that took place during Shadows of the Empire.
But what about other characters that aren’t bounty hunters? Maybe those who aren’t heroes but aren’t exactly antagonists to Kay Vess during her story. In this period, scoundrels like Dash Rendar are actively doing things to make a living under the reign of the Empire, while others like Guri are working for Black Sun in various ways. This doesn’t mean Kay would only see or hear of these things from just being on Tatooine, but possibly in some of the other planets she visits throughout the game. There were a lot of things going on everywhere for those who were not actively engaged in the ongoing war between the Rebellion and the Galactic Empire.
A big part of the gameplay in Star Wars Outlaws is avoiding trouble with the Empire through your various actions. But if that can happen with Imperial forces on every planet, could some interaction also happen with the Rebellion? A great way to interject this while still maintaining the focus on scoundrels would be to have Kay Vess come across someone like Dash Rendar. He is a character that isn’t part of the Rebel Alliance, but was cooperating with some of the Rebel heroes during Shadows of the Empire. Finding and interacting with Dash could make for an interesting twist to Kay’s story that could run parallel to other events going elsewhere at the time.
Star Wars fans won’t have to wait too long to discover how interesting and deep this part of the underworld goes. Star Wars Outlaws is set to release on August 30, 2024 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
