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How Star Wars’ new VR experience deepens what we know about Dok-Ondar, Hondo, and more
The VR game Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge was always meant to be a many-part experience. The first part dropped at the end of last year and had players crash land on the Black Spire Outpost on Batuu, the same location as the two lands in Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
The second part of Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge — Last Call — is now available on Oculus Quest, and it gives us more details about some popular Star Wars characters. SYFY WIRE had the chance to interview some of the ILMxLAB team members behind the game to learn more about what players can expect in Last Call, including how it ties in with the larger Star Wars universe.
One of the characters that’s deeply involved in the storytelling of Last Call is Dok-Ondar. Those who’ve read Star Wars comics or been to Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland or Walt Disney World know about his shop, the Den of Antiquities, where you can buy everything from kyber crystals to Jedi robes.
In Last Call, you not only get to talk to Dok-Ondar, but do a job for him as well. “I think that there's just something magical about having an actual relationship with Dok-Ondar in the experience, and then being able to go to the park and see him behind his desk,” Ian Bowie, Lead Adventure Experience Designer, tells SYFY WIRE. “It's really cool to be able to kind of have those connections.”
Jose Perez III, Director of Last Call, agrees: “After you've played through this experience and you go to the park, it’s awesome and weird — there’s this extension that you feel, like ‘I know who owns this droid repair place,’ and, ‘Okay, this dude right here behind the counter, I just helped him do this thing,’ and, ‘Oh, up there is that Sith relic that [The High Republic Jedi, Ady Sun’Zee] got.’”
Dok-Ondar isn’t the only existing Star Wars character you’ll see in the VR game. R2-D2 and C-3PO make an appearance, as well as Hondo Ohnaka, who you might've seen before at Galaxy’s Edge or in the two animated series, The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.
Last Call also features an adventure in uncovering a secret First Order base, and there's a separate “Tale” where you play IG-88, a droid similar to IG-11, The Mandalorian's assassin droid-turned-nanny voiced by Taika Waititi.
Even though IG-88 and IG-11 are different characters, they do share similarities beyond how they look. In Last Call, the IG droid is voiced by another New Zealander, Rhys Darby. “We loved the job that Taika did with IG-11, and we wanted to make sure that IG-88, who's been around for a long time, had something that still felt connected to The Mandalorian,” Bowie explains. “And so we reached out to Rhys because we just immediately thought Murray from Flight of the Conchords would be an amazing choice for IG-88.”
There are also other characters from Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge that the ILMxLAB team hopes will have additional presence in the Star Wars universe. Perez, for example, hopes Seezelslak — the chatty bartender who set up shop on top of Oga’s Cantina — shows up in other places. “He's got so many stories that he hasn't told yet. That cantina that he landed on top of Oga’s, it was somewhere else before it got there, and it was somewhere else after he had to leave before the park opened.”
Perez also has hopes that Mubo — the owner of the droid depot that exists in the parks — will one day have a presence in the parks as well. “I would love a future where we get to see a real Mubo walking around in the parks,” he said. “I know nothing about any of that happening but it'd be cool if something like that happened.”
In the meantime, Oculus Quest owners can pick up Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge — Last Call starting Sept. 15 for $9.99, or a total of $34.99 for the full experience.
