Sam Witwer Reflects on The Force Unleashed, Which Started His Journey Working On Star Wars

With the recent arrival of the Nintendo Switch port of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Sam Witwer reflects on his involvement with the game that put his Star Wars career on the map 14 years ago.



Sam Witwer was originally hired for The Force Unleashed in the mid-2000s to portray Galen Marek - better known by his alias, Starkiller - the lead character and Darth Vader's secret apprentice who ultimately plays a crucial role in organizing and rallying the nascent Rebel Alliance. Starkiller was one of the first motion-capture characters in video games to use a nearly identical likeness to the actor portraying him, something that was relatively unprecedented at the time but has become more of an industry standard over time. Sam Witwer also showcased his range by voicing Emperor Palpatine in the game. Since then, Witwer has voiced Starkiller in Soulcalibur IV and The Force Unleashed II, Emperor Palpatine in The Force Unleashed II, Rebels, Disney Infinity 3.0, and LEGO Star Wars, while expanding his range to voice the Son of Mortis in The Clone Wars, Darth Maul in The Clone Wars, Rebels, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Disney Infinity 3.0, and LEGO Star Wars, Hugh Sion in Resistance, and several other Star Wars roles including background voices. Got all that?



Talking to the official Star Wars website, Witwer answered some questions regarding the title that would begin his long-term involvement with Lucasfilm. The amount of time that passed since he was cast led to Witwer reflecting on the staying power of the game. And although he has been working on Star Wars for this long, it hasn't impacted his excitement or enthusiasm for it.

As far as production memories go, Witwer recalled the first time he was told that he'd be acting against Darth Vader and the creative solution the crew working came up with to ensure eye-level accuracy:

There is a generation of Star Wars fans that has come up since The Force Unleashed, and for anyone that has never played the game, or even heard of it, Witwer describes the way he would pitch the story to someone who might be interested:

Sam Witwer also reiterated that he'd like to thank the cast and crew that worked on the title all those years ago for giving him a very close relationship with Lucasfilm that continues to this day:

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is available on a variety of video game consoles, including the Nintendo Switch now.



Click HERE to check out and comment on this topic on our main site