A new Star Wars game is coming in 2026, and it’s aiming to do something the franchise has never done before: go all-in on turn-based strategy. Star Wars: Zero Company is being developed by Bit Reactor in collaboration with Respawn Entertainment and Lucasfilm Games. It was officially revealed at Star Wars Celebration Japan in April 2025, where the developers hosted a panel filled with passion, lore references, and more than a few jokes.
This is the first part of a three-part breakdown. Here, we’re focusing on the foundation: how the game came to be, what the team set out to build, and why they chose the Clone Wars.
From Pitch to Production: Where Zero Company Began
Greg Foertsch, Game Director at Bit Reactor, opened the panel by explaining how Zero Company started life as a passion project. Bit Reactor itself was formed in 2021 around the belief that turn-based tactics games still had huge room for innovation, especially in how they tell stories and engage players.
“We had a few prototypes, a few concepts,” Greg explained, “and then, out of nowhere, I get a phone call from Vince Zampella.”
That name should be familiar: Zampella is the head of Respawn Entertainment and the driving force behind titles like Titanfall and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. Greg laughed as he told the story: “He just casually gets in touch with me, asking what I’d think about working on a Star Wars game. You can imagine what that did to me. Excitement followed immediately by total panic.”
But the result of that call was the opportunity to pitch a Star Wars tactics game to Lucasfilm Games. And as Greg put it, “It was the perfect combination. A genre that we know, a universe we love, and the kind of narrative opportunity you don’t get often. I couldn’t believe it hadn’t been done before.”
The Team Bringing It to Life
The panel featured:
- Greg Foertsch, Game Director, Bit Reactor
- Aaron Contreras, Narrative and Cinematic Director (previously on Jedi: Fallen Order and Survivor)
- Jim Vella, Senior Producer, Respawn
- Kelsey Sharp, Creative Executive, Lucasfilm
- Orion Kellogg, Executive Producer, Lucasfilm Games
These aren’t just collaborators, they’re long-time colleagues and friends. Aaron and Orion have worked together for over a decade, and it showed in the way they riffed off each other throughout the panel.
As Orion put it: “Star Wars is about meaningful choice. That’s been missing from games that focus on spectacle alone. We wanted to change that.”
Jim Vella added some personal history: “I’m the guy who camped out for the prequels. In college. Like with a tent. So when this came together, I jumped at the chance. I’ve been building strategy games for 20 years—this was a dream brief.”
Kelsey, who oversees story and canon across Star Wars media, gave a glimpse of how Lucasfilm collaborates on projects like this: “We work on games, books, comics, animation – it all connects. But what makes this easy is working with big fans like Greg and Aaron. They get it.”
Design Pillars: The Foundation of Zero Company
Greg walked the audience through the four “design pillars” that Bit Reactor used to build the game:
1. Start with Star Wars
“It sounds obvious,” Greg admitted, “but it’s not just about having lightsabers. We started with Star Wars as a storytelling principle. That means staying true to lore, tone, and the kinds of characters that make it special.”
That collaboration meant working closely with Lucasfilm and hiring people like Aaron, who came straight from Respawn’s Jedi games. Aaron brought that cinematic sensibility with him and a deep sense of narrative structure.
2. Meaningful Choices
Zero Company is designed around tough decisions. You’ll take on missions, choose who to send, and live with the consequences. “You’re not just fighting battles,” Aaron said. “You’re making calls that affect who lives, who trusts you, and what your team becomes.”
Hawks, the player character, leads the squad, but who joins, how you fight, and which missions you prioritise will change how the story unfolds.
3. Cinematic and Approachable
This was a big one for Aaron: “I’ve been chasing this idea for years. That tactical games don’t need to be clunky to be deep. They can be beautiful. They can move you.”
Camera work shifts to reflect emotional moments. Dialogue scenes are treated with cinematic care. And Gordy Haab, composer for the Jedi games, is back to score the soundtrack.
As Greg put it: “Depth shouldn’t cost you elegance. That stuck with us.”
4. Strategy and Combat
Tactics aren’t bolted on here. They’re woven into the narrative. Your strategy decisions between missions matter just as much as how you flank in combat.
“You don’t just play the story,” said Greg. “You build it through combat, planning, and character interaction.”
Why the Clone Wars?
Kelsey explained it best: “In most Star Wars eras, you’ve got asymmetrical warfare. Rebels against the Empire. Resistance against the First Order. But the Clone Wars you’ve got two full-scale armies, both with resources, both doing conventional and unconventional warfare. That’s gold for a tactics game.”
Aaron added: “It’s not just a backdrop, it’s an active, shifting battlefield. Political intrigue, battlefront tactics, betrayal… all happening at once.”
The team compared the story’s tone to:
- The gritty war realism of Rogue One
- The political complexity of Andor
- The adventure and myth of the original trilogy
In other words, it’s Star Wars, but grounded. And with a focus on characters who don’t always make it into the spotlight.
Up Next
In Part II, we’ll break down the characters of Zero Company: who you play as, who you recruit, and how your choices shape the story. We’ll also explore the game’s character customization, bond system, and base-building mechanics.