Disney Infinity 3.0: John Vignocchi Talks Star Wars & Reading The Force Awakens Script

Disney Infinity 3.0 adds Star Wars to an already extensive roster of characters that includes both Disney and Marvel properties. This new version of the game is the ultimate crossover of beloved characters, one we could’ve only dreamed of in the days of Marvel vs. Capcom fighters. 

With the new Star Wars packs, you can go on two story adventures with both the Prequel and Original Trilogy gangs, or team up Star Wars characters with some Marvel superheroes, say the Guardians of the Galaxy, in the Toybox. Yes, this nerdy dream is now possible. 

Den of Geek spoke to the mastermind behind Disney Infinity, Executive Producer John Vignocchi, about the new game, what we should expect in the coming months, and how he got to read the Star Wars: The Force Awakens script almost a year ago…

The biggest thing about Disney Infinity 3.0 is the inclusion of Star Wars characters and elements. What was the process of adapting Star Wars to Disney Infinity like?

When we first went to Lucasfilm, we pitched them a Star Wars: The Force Awakens game, and they had said to truly integrate Star Wars into Infinity, we needed to add in characters and places that expand the entire Star Wars stock. And that would also include Star Wars Rebels characters, which at the time that animated series was still under development. But given our desire to do the right thing for Star Wars fans, we agreed wholeheartedly with the team at Lucasfilm to do everything we could to integrate all these great characters and elements.

Was there a character or element of Star Wars that you liked working on the most?

There were so many different aspects to it. I can’t actually put my finger on one. I would say from our Rise Against the Empire play set, the feature that I am most impressed with is the physics animation system that they integrated into the Battle for Hoth with the AT-STs. The way that [AT-STs] actually fall down to the ground, the way that our tow cables work with our snowspeeders, is unlike anything that’s been done in a Star Wars game before. As a result, each time the AT-STs fall in a unique way. So I was incredibly impressed with that. It’s a very sophisticated piece of technology for what is ultimately a kids and family game. I hope it really impresses the audience.

In the Twilight of the Republic play set, the thing I most liked working on was the lightsaber combat system and really improving our weapon-based melee combat. We worked very closely with the team at Lucasfilm, and they informed us that the lightsaber combat in Infinity is one of the best that they’ve seen since they’ve been creating Star Wars games. That was an incredible honor to have them say that, and it was a lot of fun to work on with Ninja Theory.

How about the Star Wars: The Force Awakens play set?

Of course, there’s the whole secrecy of working on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. We were able to read the scripts over a year ago, now. We worked in a white room under biometric scanning in order to be inside of there. Some of our team is also completely sequestered from the rest of the Infinity team because they’ve been trusted with seeing The Force Awakens. It’s been a total blast because you get to be a part of the magic that J. J. Abrams, Kathleen Kennedy, and their amazing team have been working on for so many years.

For The Force Awakens, we know that the first two figures, Rey and Finn, were revealed at D23. Is there any other info you can give us on the expansion?

No, not at this time, unfortunately. The only information that I can give you is that it will be launching in conjunction with the movie this holiday. I think the only other thing I can tell you is that we’ll be the only Episode VII game that’s out there.

Is there any content coming out along the lines of Journey to The Force Awakens where it takes place between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens?

Not coming from us. I believe that the team on Battlefront is making a multiplayer battle map, but you’d have to ask them because I don’t know many details about that.

[Vignocchi is talking about Battlefront‘s Battle of Jakku DLC that will arrive in December.]

You talked about doing justice to Star Wars in Disney Infinity, about taking all the characters of Star Wars. Have there been any discussions about doing any stuff from Legends continuity?

We have not at this point, but we are always open to doing anything across the Star Wars saga. The thing is that, we call ourselves a platform and what that means is that we are able to expand content over time with new versions of the game, new content updates. So that certainly is an option for us, but it comes down to what the priorities are for us as the development team, the priorities for Lucasfilm in terms of characters that they want to surface, and then also what fans are asking for. That last point really can’t be understated. We really listen to our fans, and we try very hard to make sure that we are doing what’s right for them and what characters they want to see join Disney Infinity.

One of the great things about Disney Infinity is the opportunity and potential for crossover content. I was wondering if you guys, even just playfully in your heads, have any kind of Star Wars/Guardians of the Galaxy crossover expansion in mind?

[Laughs.] We’ve been talking about that for marketing trailers for a very long time. But nothing officially where we’ve actually crossed over the two brands. The thing is that our Toybox mode allows players to do that, and I am sure that some creative minds in our community can do a Guardians of the Galaxy/Star Wars crossover better justice than even we could.

At E3, I played the Attack on the Death Star level on the X-Wing, and I was wondering if you looked at any past Star Wars games when developing these levels?

Absolutely. We looked at all the past Star Wars games for some of those iconic moments and also for what looked good and what felt good. It wasn’t just past Star Wars games, I know the team at Studio Gobo that worked on a lot of our flight control and flying-based type missions, looked closely at Star Fox for inspiration on how they wanted those to feel as they integrated that tool and that technology into Infinity.

Are there any other characters or elements you can tease?

We’re a platform of all things Disney, which includes Marvel content and Star Wars content, and if you look at our film slate, I think it’s safe to say that as the company continues to make great content we’ll continue to support that inside the Disney Infinity platform.

Is there anything else you want to say about the game?

No, I just want to say thank you to all of our fans that have been there with us and hopefully all the new fans that Star Wars is going to bring to the platform, and I look forward to playing with everybody online.

Disney Infinity 3.0 is out in stores now for last-gen and current-gen consoles. 

John Saavedra is an assistant editor at Den of Geek US. Find more of his work on his website. Or just follow him on Twitter.