‘Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s Story Has Been Influenced By ‘Clone Wars’ and ‘Rebels’

In anticipation of serving as a writer on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, legendary RPG writer Chris Avellone has been watching and researching a lot of Star Wars, a series he admittedly hasn’t always loved. In addition to peeping the new trilogy, Rogue One, and Solo, the writer has revealed that he has watched the entirety of Clone Wars and its follow-up Rebels, two animated Star Wars TV shows that aren’t as popular as the movies, but which hardcore fans enjoy quite a bit. And according to Avellone, the two TV shows have had an impact on Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, or at least how he’s approached working on it.

“Both of those were a joy to research,” said Avellone of the TV shows while speaking to GamesIndustry. “I didn’t like the pilots for each one, and I never had a chance to watch them [all the way through], but actually they’re pretty great. I actually really liked Clone Wars, and surprisingly I liked Rebels. I don’t think I’d have watched Rebels if I didn’t have to do research on it, but I was like ‘Wow, this is a great show.’”

According to Avellone, while some may write off the TV shows, which are undoubtedly somewhat aimed at children, they both actually have some great, mature storytelling and themes.

“Not in the sense that there’s sex and gory violence, but more about the fact they really deep-dive some of the characters in ways like how relationships can go sour, or here’s the potential danger of drug addiction but the metaphor is the Dark Side,” said the writer “All this stuff they introduced they did in really clever ways, and the voice actors did an amazing job with it. So it seems like it’s aimed at kids but I think the storylines end up being surprisingly rich for supposedly family-oriented shows. They don’t shy away from some topics.”

Avellone continued:

“One thing Rebels was doing was looking at new ways other cultures interpret the force. That was very much part of that series, so seeing them being willing to explore the force outside of Jedi and Sith and how those philosophies come in was really interesting. That surprised me.”

Avellone reveals that Clone Wars has especially opened his eyes to the large amount and the variety of stories that can be told in the Star Wars universe that feel like they belong as much as anything. And apparently, Avellone and the other writers have channelled some of this freedom when penning Jedi: Fallen Order. However, Avellone notes that he and the rest of the writing team aren’t just adding new things to add things, and rather are making sure they respect the franchise.

“It’s okay to do a big monster Godzilla story in Clone Wars,” said Avellone. “Because having big monsters is part of the Star Wars universe — there’s always a moment where they have to confront some huge beast or alien, that’s part of the franchise.

“However, when you suddenly find a huge space station in the middle of nowhere, where time doesn’t seem to pass, and it’s more of a Star Trek homage, suddenly you realise, ‘Hey, that doesn’t fit. Star Wars isn’t about time travel.’ So it’s a matter of knowing your franchise and its strengths, rather than just adding elements in you haven’t seen before. You’ve got to be careful.”

As GamesIndustry notes, you can see the influence of Rebels and Clone Wars in the game’s debut trailer, especially with the game’s antagonist, Second Sister, a sibling of Seventh Sister, one of the baddies in Rebels.

That all said, Avellone also points out that the sheer amount of stories told — in Rebels, Clone Wars, and beyond — can make penning an original Star Wars adventure difficult, but the writer seems confident he and his team did just that with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which is set to release on November 15 via the PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

For more news, media, and information on the upcoming game, be sure to peep all of our precious coverage of the title by clicking right here.

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