Star Wars: Battlefront II Dev Defends Strong Female Protagonists

Star Wars: Battlefront II has a powerful female lead heading up the game’s roster of characters, [...]

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Star Wars: Battlefront II has a powerful female lead heading up the game's roster of characters, a casting choice that the game's developers said makes complete sense given the history of Star Wars.

Of course, having a strong female protagonist doesn't always sit well with everyone, and Star Wars: Battlefront II is no exception. Take Daisy Ridley's Rey in the movie Star Wars: The Force Awakens who also faced her share of criticism for helming the Star Wars movie and it shouldn't take much of an imagination to believe that Battlefront II's protagonist, Iden Versio, would face a similarly unwarranted response.

But according to Motive Studios' David Robillard, even the thought that a protagonist should be criticized for being female is ridiculous, especially in a Star Wars game. Speaking to GameSpot, he said that having strong female characters has been a core part of Star Wars and there's no reason why it should stop with Battlefront II.

"It's sad that the internet coming to terms with [female protagonists] because Star Wars has always been about strong female characters," he said. "And for us, telling an authentic Star Wars story had to go through a strong female protagonist. We wanted somebody who would be bold, headstrong, but also show an emotional side. So it made perfect sense for us that it would be Iden.

As for the actress that played Iden Versio in Battlefront II, Janina Gavankar, Robillard said that while he hadn't interacted with her personally, he's only hear positive things.

"I haven't worked personally with Janina but my colleague who sits to the left of me at work, he's been to motion capture sessions and … she's phenomenal," he said. "She's so enthusiastic, she's so happy to be working with us. We have a great collaboration with her. She's always giving 110 percent during our motion and facial capture sessions. I think it shows in the captures that we have. We have captures for cinematic and we have captures for gameplay as well. So when Iden does a melee takedown, that's Janina doing the melee takedown.

Star Wars: Battlefront II is scheduled to release on Nov. 17 for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

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