Star Wars: Squadrons short-film finds the hunter becoming the hunted

I was all about Star Wars: TIE Fighter when I was a kid; that game felt absolutely real to me, like I really was flying a TIE fighter at breakneck speeds as I wiped out Rebel scum from the galaxy, but the Star Wars: Squadrons looks to be on a whole other level. The upcoming video-game takes place after the destruction of the second Death Star in STAR WARS: RETURN OF THE JEDI and focuses on starfighter pilots from both sides of the conflict. We're still a few weeks out from the launch of Star Wars: Squadrons, but a short CG film has been released that will definitely put you in the dogfighting mood.

Made in collaboration by Motive Studios, Lucasfilm, and ILM, Hunted is set before the events of Star Wars: Squadrons and introduces you to Varko Grey, leader of Titan Squadron, as he finds himself as the last TIE pilot on the battlefield being relentlessly hunted by a renegade New Republic X-Wing. While speaking with StarWars.com, Hunted director Neel Upadhye said that he pitched the concept of  a "dogfight movie" to the creative team at Electronic Arts.

As we were getting closer to launch, we felt like we could benefit from doing something big and exciting that would just remind Star Wars fans out there how awesome it is to fly around in an X-wing and an A-wing, and reignite the love for the dogfight fantasy again.

Although the Empire are typically depicted as straight-up bad guys, you can't help but to feel a little sympathetic for Varko Grey. "We wanted to make sure that we didn’t make the Empire something they’re not," said James Waugh, vice president, franchise content and strategy at Lucasfilm. "In the short, Varko is still a committed idealist and someone who you think is probably a pretty dangerous individual and has done some terrible things. But his entire galaxy has just flipped on its head. All context of order and what will come next is suddenly in chaos and shambles. Seeing that, and seeing that flip, and seeing his reaction to the fact that what he cherished and believed in may be lost, is as human an experience as you can get. It’s part of the power of the storytelling of the game and the short." Star Wars: Squadrons will be available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 2, 2020.

Source: EA Star Wars

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Based in Canada, Kevin Fraser has been a news editor with JoBlo since 2015. When not writing for the site, you can find him indulging in his passion for baking and adding to his increasingly large collection of movies that he can never find the time to watch.