Star Wars Outlaws Kay Vess was inspired by Han Solo but is "a little bit more relatable"

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

The developer of Star Wars Outlaws took inspiration from many different scoundrels when designing protagonist Kay Vest - including Han Solo, Indiana Jones, Jack Sparrow, and more.

In an interview found in the latest issue of Edge Magazine, Julian Gerighty, the creative director of Star Wars Outlaws, spoke about some of the influences the development team took from when creating the upcoming game's protagonist Kay Vess: "When you think of a scoundrel, your mind goes to Han Solo, it goes to Lando, it goes to Indiana Jones, to James Bond, to Captain Jack Sparrow," Gerighty explains.

"It was super selfish," Gerighty continues. "It was the fantasy I connected with the most in the original [Star Wars] trilogy - as a kid, I was a much, much bigger fan of Han Solo and Chewbacca than any of the others."

The team at Massive Entertainment wanted their protagonist to be "a little bit more relatable" though, "more of a rookie, a petty thief, who ends up in a situation that's much bigger than they ever expected," Gerighty continues. "This little fish in a *colossal* pond, dealing with sharks and barracudas."

These influences make a lot of sense. If you didn't already know, Kay is said to be a cunning scoundrel in the upcoming Star Wars game, in fact, Star Wars Outlaws gameplay sounds like a heist game Han Solo would be proud of.

In the meantime, find out why Star Wars: Outlaws will be all about "what ‘open world’ means to the player".

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.