Gears 6 art direction could draw inspiration from The Handmaid's Tale

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Art director Aryan Hanbeck has been telling the artists "to go watch Handmaid's Tale"

Gears 6
(Image credit: Microsoft Studios)

Gears 5's art director Aryan Hanbeck is drawing inspiration from the TV adaption of Margaret Atwood's dystopian drama The Handmaid's Tale for the design of a potential Gears 6. In an interview for game composer Hamidreza Nikoofar's Wassup Conversations podcast, Hanbeck spoke extensively about how The Coalition created the art for Gears 5 and said that he's been encouraging the artists to watch The Handmaid's Tale for a possible future entry in the Gears franchise.  

"I've been telling all the artists nonstop to go watch Handmaid's Tale" Hanbeck said, "the composition, the colour, and just the cinematography and symbolism is just off the charts… So I watched that and I'm like, 'Wow, we gotta find a way to get more of this stuff in Gears 6.'" 

The Handmaid's Tale is dripping in symbolism and its dystopian world setting is very dark in tone, which is reflected in the series cinematography and lighting. 

As one of the Microsoft's longest running and successful franchises we wouldn't be so surprised if the Coalition is working on another game in the series already. Nothing official has been confirmed about a potential Gears 6 so far, and since Gears 5 only came out recently back in September, we're not likely to hear any sort of news about it quite some time. 

But the fact that it's being talked about indicates we could see more of the series in the future. We don't know how a new Gears game could shape up, especially considering it would likely land on the next-gen Xbox Project Scarlett console, but it'll be interesting to see just the studio could incorporate the inspiration drawn from The Handmaid's Tale into Gears distinctive art style. 

Just diving into Gears 5 yourself? Here are all the Gears 5 tips you need to stop the swarm, or you can watch the video below: 

Heather Wald
Heather Wald
Evergreen Editor, Games

Heather Wald is the Evergreen Editor, Games at GamesRadar+. Her writing career began on a student-led magazine at Bath Spa University, where she earned a BA (Hons) in English literature. Heather landed her first role writing about tech and games for Stuff Magazine shortly after graduating with an MA in magazine journalism at Cardiff University. Now with almost seven years of experience working with GamesRadar+ on the features team, Heather helps to develop, maintain, and expand the evergreen features that exist on the site for games, as well as spearhead the Indie Spotlight series. You'll also see her contribute op-eds, interview-led features, and more. In her spare time, you'll likely find Heather tucking into RPGs and indie games, reading romance novels, and drinking lots of tea.