Star Wars Outlaws Trailer Brings Back Pre-Special Edition Lucas Version Of Creature

Summary New Star Wars Outlaws trailer shows characters and creatures from the original movie trilogy.

The Sarlacc pit shown in the game is reminiscent of the original version from 1983, rather than the version from the 1997 Special Edition re-release.

Massive Entertainment could be using their own interpretation of the iconic creature, as it still appears to have tentacles from the newer version, but is missing the beak-type mouth that was introduced alongside them.

A new trailer for Ubisoft's upcoming open-world game, Star Wars Outlaws, has shown more of scoundrel Kay Vess' story, providing an insight into her motives and backstory, along with the many threats she will face on her journey. The new, action-packed footage showed Kay engaging in combat both on land and in space and featured the return of various iconic characters and creatures from the original trilogy.

Star Wars Outlaws is set between the events of The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and focuses on the Outer Rim's criminal underworld in a story that takes place away from the series' main conflict between the rebels and the Empire at this time.

One surprising change in the trailer - which can be seen on Ubisoft's YouTube channel - comes when Kay and her Axolotl companion, Nix, can be seen sliding toward a Sarlacc pit during a daring chase. With Jabba the Hutt being shown moments prior, and his guards pushing Kay about, it's likely that their negotiations weren't successful, and he sent her to die in the pit, much as he tried with Luke Skywalker in Return of the Jedi. Whereas this kind of behavior is expected of Jabba, the real surprise is that Massive Entertainment seems to have used the version of the Sarlacc from before the 1997 Special Edition re-releases of the original trilogy.

Related Star Wars Video Games Return To Important Era Last Visited 30 Years Ago With the upcoming release of Star Wars Outlaws, the franchise's games are finally returning to an era last visited in this medium almost 30 years ago.

Star Wars Outlaws' Sarlacc Pit Seems To Be The More Intimidating Original

The Special Editions Unnecessarily Added Tentacles And A Beak To The Pit

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The Sarlacc is a large, carnivorous invertebrate, but despite showing characteristics of both plants and animals, xenobiologists have not been able to answer the question of what exactly it is due to how dangerous the creature is. Sarlaccs reproduce via spores, known as Sarlacci, that travel through space and implant themselves into the ground, growing downward like a plant to form the deadly Sarlacc pit.

When the Sarlacc pit was first shown in 1983's Return of the Jedi, it appeared as a void of what appeared to be razor-sharp teeth, and it didn't make much sound or move much, acting almost like a venus fly trap waiting for unsuspecting Tatooine residents or other smaller creatures to fall into it when it wasn't being fed by Jabba. With the 1997 Special Editions, George Lucas chose to rework many of the original films' practical effects to employ more of Industrial Light & Magic's then state-of-the-art CGI that he'd begun using for the first prequel movie, The Phantom Menace, which was released in 1999. This led to the new version of the Sarlacc pit from 1997 onward having a beak in the middle, along with visible tentacles, and sound effects that made it sound more animal-like.

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Arguably, the post-Special Edition version of the Sarlacc pit, while certainly more animated and alive, felt less intimidating than the classic. The idea of descending into a seemingly inescapable void with sharp teeth to prevent any escape, along with Jabba's description of being digested by the creature - helpfully translated by C-3PO - certainly established that it was a terrible fate regardless, and the pit didn't need extra features to make it more horrific, especially the beak with its tongue, which somewhat diminishes the idea of falling into a giant gaping mouth.

Sarlaccs can digest its prey for thousands of years, with rumors suggesting this is because of an enzyme in their stomach acid that grants some species an unnaturally long life.

Related Star Wars Outlaws' Rating Hints At A 40-Year First For The Franchise Korea's age rating for Star Wars Outlaws suggests the inclusion of more mature content, which could lead to the series' first-ever M rating in the US.

Star Wars Outlaws' Sarlacc Pit Could Be Massive Entertainment's Own Interpretation

Tentacles Still Seem To Line The Edge Of The Pit, Even Without The Beak

While there's something around the edges of Star Wars Outlaws' Sarlacc pit that looks like they could be the aforementioned tentacles, they seem to be slumped and lifeless, rather than the moving ones seen in later versions of the film. It's possible that the pit Kay is sliding into is a dead Sarlacc, with Kay jumping away from an explosion at the time, and that is the reason why the tentacles aren't moving.

If this sequence takes place on Tatooine as Jabba's earlier appearance would suggest, this would contradict the canon of the "Almighty Sarlacc" and the "Great Pit of Carkoon" being the only one on the planet, which seems to be established by Jabba in Return of the Jedi. The Sarlacc has also proven notoriously difficult to kill, with it being wounded on several occasions, such as when Jabba's sail barge exploded, or when Boba Fett burrowed his way out of the Sarlacc's stomach and burned his way through to the surface using its flamethrower, but it survived both of these situations, instead dying when one of Slave I's seismic charges was dropped into its mouth in The Book of Boba Fett.

There was no sign of any tentacles in the original Return of the Jedi's Sarlacc pit, so if these are the same tentacles lining the edge of the pit in Star Wars Outlaws as the post-Special Edition release's version of the creature, then the omission of the beak seen in those versions is an interesting one. If so, it's possible that Massive Entertainment made its own hybrid of the two versions for the game, making it more placid like its original form.

The Sarlacc's beak also wasn't present in the opening of 2021's The Book of Boba Fett, suggesting that while it's still shown in the version of Return of the Jedi still streaming on Disney+, Disney may have retconned this feature being present constantly going forward, as the series later explained that the beak is a second mouth and tongue that the tentacles pull its prey toward.

An August 30 release date has now been confirmed for Star Wars Outlaws, and pre-orders are available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (via the Ubisoft Connect launcher). Therefore, players don't have to wait too much longer to see how this Sarlacc sequence plays out, or which version of the creature Kay and Nix will be confronting.

Source: Ubisoft/YouTube