Cancelled Star Wars: Underworld Show Provided Inspiration for the New God Of War Game.

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The story of the latest God Of War title – which is more introspective and focuses on the bond between Kratos and his son as they take on the Gods and monsters of Norse Mythology – had surprising inspiration from Star Wars Underworld. The game’s director, Cory Barlog (a former LucasArts employee), stated that he got the idea for the game’s new direction from the scripts of the cancelled television series.

 

From VentureBeat:

“Probably the really small beginnings of this idea, the germination of this — when I was working at [LucasArts], I was allowed to go up to the ranch and read the scripts for the [canceled live-action Star Wars] TV show,” Barlog told GamesBeat. “It was the most mind-blowing thing I’d ever experienced. I cared about the Emperor. They made the Emperor a sympathetic figure who was wronged by this f***ing heartless woman. She’s this hardcore gangster, and she just totally destroyed him as a person. I almost cried while reading this. This is the Emperor, the lightning out of the fingers Emperor. That’s something magical. The writers who worked on that, guys from The Shield and 24, these were excellent writers.”

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While it’s unlikely that the show will ever be made (at least as it was originally written) the idea of presenting Emperor Sheev Palpatine as a kind of tragic monster is particularly interesting concept – one that could either add depth to an iconic villain or risk messing up the character. Barlog’s comments suggest that it was the former.

 

For those who haven’t caught it yet, here’s the 10-minute demonstration for the PS4’s new God Of War title.

 

 

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Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

Grant Davis (Pomojema)

Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.

20 thoughts on “Cancelled Star Wars: Underworld Show Provided Inspiration for the New God Of War Game.

  • June 17, 2016 at 7:57 pm
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    Wow. OK, I rarely think it works to show a new villain as being evil by taking the person we know is most evil (the Emperor) and showing the new person as being the person who basically kicks their butt.

  • June 17, 2016 at 9:40 pm
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    So they basically were going to do to him what the PT did to Anakin?!

    • June 18, 2016 at 1:37 am
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      Interesting idea. Gives me a very Great Expectations vibe where Palps is Miss Havesham and Anakin is Estella.

      • June 18, 2016 at 4:35 am
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        I’m glad this show was never made after reading this.

    • June 18, 2016 at 7:54 am
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      It’s okay with Anakin though, because the OT takes him from villain to pawn – it means he can have his redemption. Palpatine is just the embodiment of pure evil, he gets no redemption so it’s really inappropriate thematically to give him moral justification for being such a galactic douche.

      • June 18, 2016 at 1:11 pm
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        I liked what they did to him in Plagueis where *some* of it came from his uncaring Parents, “affluenza”, and a lack of boundaries as a child which was as close as he got to a justification for why he was why he was while still being believable what with all the celebutante douches we have in the real world but I’m tired of the love sick teenager cliche. I still haven’t forgiven Nolan for doing the same exct thing to Bane.

  • June 17, 2016 at 10:39 pm
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    Fascinating.

  • June 18, 2016 at 7:44 am
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    That sounds…awful. Like staggeringly terrible. So ultimately NO ONE in the SW universe is ever responsible for their own actions? The whole thing is an excercise is moral relativism? Christ on a crutch.

  • June 18, 2016 at 7:52 am
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    Palpatine scorned by a gansgta b*tch?
    Sounds like a major bullet dodged by the Star Wars saga.

    • June 18, 2016 at 7:55 am
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      Mmmmm hmmmm. Tru dat. It’s okay though, because in season two we would have found out that SHE was really the victim because daddy didn’t give her enough hugs as a child.

  • June 18, 2016 at 10:50 am
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    I’d say: Let Palpatine remain the archetype, the one unforgivably evil character. He embodies the Dark Side. He is the one who was never seduced, but was evil from the start.

    The view taken in the EU, canonical or not, is that he was a complete sociopath ever since youth. Any concept that “he became evil because of an unhappy love affair” will only cheapen the character. It would be too much like Anakin’s story.

  • June 18, 2016 at 11:31 am
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    Lot of criticism for that idea, but I kinda like it. Nobody is born evil, they develop into it. So I like the idea that something sent Palps on the wrong path and, unlike Anakin, was beyond redemption.

    • June 18, 2016 at 7:25 pm
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      Except Palpatine. Come on, we GET it already; Vader is a tragic figure because he was talented, not too bright, and manipulated. It really kills some of the satisfaction of the ending of Jedi if, oh noes, Palpatine was ALSO just a poor, emotionally wounded soul. The ultimate puppetmaster HAS to be evil in this kind of morality play.

      • June 18, 2016 at 10:38 pm
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        So you’re saying he was born evil?

    • June 19, 2016 at 7:31 pm
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      there is a case for being born evil I reckon, interesting stuff mind

  • June 18, 2016 at 10:19 pm
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    I can understand “Palpatine the Thug” – daddy was a drunken smuggler, mama was a spice-ho, left to his own devices, discovers the Force by accident when he kills a playground bully – and likes it. But again with the backstory of a manipulative wench wrecking the most powerful evil-doer in the galaxy?

  • June 19, 2016 at 7:10 am
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    I much prefer Palpatine as a sociopath. I mean look at just the pure JOY on his face in both episode 6 when he is shocking Luke and in episode 3 when he is dueling yoda. Hes evil because he loves inflicting pain and embodying power. Ever since the Fatherhood reveal of episode 5, Vader has been a tragic figure- so his redemptive backstory makes sense. I get that nobody is “born evil”, but never once do we get ANY kind of subtext that the emperor has anything but absolute joy for the ways of the Sith. I can’t picture any kind of love or redemptive story that didn’t feel very forced for his character. That why I also dislike the Rey as palpatine’s daughter theory. Love or even lust for anything besides power and pain seemed beyond him.

  • June 19, 2016 at 6:27 pm
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    This sounds miserably terrible. I don’t want to sympathize with Palpatine. He’s a lunatic. I love how much he enjoys being evil. This just seems like more of George utterly misunderstanding his own iconic characters.

  • June 21, 2016 at 1:55 am
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    Kratos has a big hipster beard now? Does he also vape and drive a WRX?

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